By Scott Roblin

Gender identity topic still a talking point in SD76 school board race

Sep 19, 2017 | 5:09 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Four weeks, that’s all the time school board candidates for SD76 have to earn the votes of Medicine Hat residents.

Gender identity remains an election issue, with an 18-month battle between the School Division and Concerned Parents of SD76 still raging.

City councillor Celina Symmonds is running for trustee for the first time, and said she is taking exception with some of the comments from the parent group.

“I’m concerned about the Concerned Parents, because I worry that a lot of what they talk about is fear-mongering and it’s not real,” said Symmonds. “And, so I think it’s really important that we have people who are running who have some common-sense approaches to some of these issues that are facing the school board right now.”

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The dispute centres around SD76’s provincially mandated policy 622, which centres around gender identity and student-teacher confidentiality regarding gender.

Incumbent trustee Catherine Wilson Fraser has served on the board over the last four years, and said trustees must follow LGBTQ policy at the direction of the province.

“We have to follow what is law,” said Wilson Fraser. “It is legislation and that’s what we follow through, that is our job.”

Concerned Parents member Jeremy Williamson is one of the nine candidates, and is looking to see more restrictions on things like student-teacher gender confidentially and gay-straight alliances.

We had hoped to ask him how one elected trustee would go about influencing a provincial law, however he refused to make himself available for an interview due to campaigning on Tuesday.

Public opinion on the matter has been mixed, with some we spoke to saying boys and girls should dress and act like their gender, while others feel the current rules allow kids to feel more comfortable at school.

Six other candidates are vying for the five trustee positions, including Greg Bender, Debora Forbes, Carolyn Freeman, Rick Massini, Aaron Myradon, and Terry Riley.

All five incumbents in Wilson Fraser, Forbes, Freeman, Riley and Massini are running once again, while Bender and Myradon are looking to unseat one of the potential returnees.

While gender identity remains a hot topic, Symmonds said this election is also about other issues including poverty reduction in schools.

“If we want to end poverty in our community by 2030, we have to do it all together,” said Symmonds. “And, I think that both City Council and the school boards are a big part of that. Schools of course affect children, and when we talk about poverty the best place to start is with children.”

And according to Wilson Fraser, more people seem to be taking an interest in this year’s vote.

“We all care about kids and we have a lot of kids to care about, over 7,000 in our district and we need to move forward,” said Wilson Fraser. “I think that the more interest that it peaks, the more knowledge that is out there on what we do as trustees, the better our community is.”

Medicine Hat residents head to the polls to elect a new school board on October 16.