Dialogue with HWDSB - Sexual Orientation Strand
Despite what seems to be a setback with the passing of the Sexual Orientation Strand of the Equity Policy, we refuse to leave the table and have recently entered into further dialogue with school board officials as to how the Policy will be implemented while maintaining a ’safe’ environment for children from Judeo-Christian principled families.
At our first meeting, the Board was informed that already in this school year there have been 3 reported incidents where Teachers in a grade 2 or 3 classroom attempted to ‘normalize’ homosexuality via books like “Bobby has 2 Dads’. In each case, the Christian child objected to the book and stated that his/her family says that such living is wrong. The teachers in each case told the child his/her parents were wrong. School Board officials were not supportive of the teachers’ responses and stated that it is important that such incidents be raised with the teacher and that if a satisfactory response is not offered, then discuss it with the principal. We recommend that you also report any such incidents to your trustee in writing with a copy to our Council.
We asked the officials how this type of situation could be avoided moving forward. While there were a number of avenues discussed which we will bring to you in our next newsletter, one we can share at this time is that the Board will accept letters of notification to the teacher and principal citing your family’s objection to any such curriculum dealing with alternate sexuality. In this letter you should request advance notice (2 weeks) prior to any such activity which may involve your child.
We encourage you to prepare such notification immediately and submit it to your child’s teacher during a respectful pre-arranged meeting. We suggest that you copy the letter to the principal, your trustee and our Council. If you are not comfortable preparing such a letter, then we encourage you to download a copy of our Declaration of Spiritual Values. Please advise us as to how your notice is received. In our next newsletter we hope to provide a full report of our ongoing dialogue.