Public school board passes amended gender policy

“When a student discloses, staff will encourage, without coercion, the student to communicate with their parents/guardians and seek their support,” read the amendment.

The second amendment stated that any further amendments to the policy shall be in accordance with the existing procedures on policy amendment. This replaced wording that had said the policy would be reviewed annually by trustees.

Board chair Rick Massini said that he thought SD76 was on the right track “from the get go”, and indicated that the policy will only change in future if the underlying provincial legislation is changed.

Massini also said the feedback received by the board made him think the community would be satisfied with the policy, saying that the “vast majority of school councils” are finished with the matter.

During the discussion amongst the board on the policy, trustee Terry Riley spoke at length about the benefits of the policy. He also expressed a hope that the changes made would bring an end to the matter, while addressing members of the community who have expressed repeated concern on the topic.

“Every time we have to review the petitions that come in, we have to take administrative time to do that,” said Riley. “We have to pay extra for the extra time they come in to do that, we have to hire lawyers to represent us in court if people proceed that direction, we put in hundreds and hundreds of hours to work with these people, to come to a resolution, and hundreds of hundreds of hours to go through the petition.”

Riley was concerned about costs being pushed onto classrooms.

“It does cost money,” said Riley. “They (the petitioners) have a legal right to do that, but they have to understand every time they do that, they take money from kids out of the classroom in order to pay that.”

Jeremy Williamson, who is a member of the Concerned Parents of School District 76 and previously sought to have a petition heard by the board via the court system, was present at the meeting. Speaking afterwards, he said he had no issues with the amendments made to the policy.

However, he did take issue with the procedures that are included in the policy.

“The policies give direction on the writing of procedures,” said Williamson. “We believe that there is more room for distinct clarification in the policy that would alleviate the concerns parents have with the procedures.”

But two students from Crescent Heights High School are speaking out, saying it’s their decision to come out and decide who they want to tell.

“You should have the choice to tell who you want and to come out to who you want instead of being kind of ushered towards it as a definitive choice,” Dakota Carrier said.

Carrier is part of the gay straight alliance at Crescent Heights and said it’s a place students can go to feel safe and included.

“I’m attracted to any gender and I personally identify as non-binary so I don’t like being addressed as either male or female but i’m just kind of in the queer space,” Carrier said.

The 16-year-old is comfortable but knows not everyone understands.

It’s a feeling Jaca Funk, 16, is familiar with.

“I was never the boy-ish boy ever, like, it was always heels handbags, skirts, all that,” she said. “I guess, growing up, you’re a child so just kind of think, you never really worry, I’m a boy, I’m a girl, it’s just, ‘I’m having fun’.”

Funk said it should be the students decidion but knows the important role school staff can play in making sure everyone feels safe, even if that’s something they can’t do at home.

“Teachers can really get a sense of who a student is and they can know if you’re going through a transition and it’s important for teachers to encourage students to be themselves,” she added.

by James Wood and Ashley Wiebe

Public school board passes amended gender policy

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