NEWS RELEASE
March 20, 2011
Queer Ontario Calls on the Ministry of Education to Assist Students in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School District in Forming Gay Straight Alliances
For months now, Queer Ontario has been engaging in an ongoing dialogue with the Ministry of Education around the now shelved Sex Ed Curriculum as well as Gay Straight Alliances (GSAs). Back in January, we wrote to the Ministry and asked that they enforce their Policy/Program Memorandum 145* in the Halton Catholic District School Board. This piece of Policy mandates that school boards, whether they be Public or Catholic, support students who wish to form and/or join GSAs. To quote the Policy directly:
“In order to promote a positive school climate, school boards must provide opportunities for all members of the school community to increase their knowledge and understanding of such issues as homophobia, gender-based violence, sexual harassment, inappropriate sexual behaviour, critical media literacy, and safe Internet use. Ontario’s curriculum provides many opportunities for students to develop an understanding of these topics. Boards must also help school staff to give support to students who wish to participate in gay–straight alliances and in other student-led activities that promote understanding and development of healthy relationships. Schools must also engage their school councils and student councils to support these student-led activities.”
Once again, we are calling on the Ministry to enforce their Policy to ensure that the students at St. Joseph Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga, who were denied permission to form a GSA by their principal, are granted the right to form and participate in a GSA as afforded to them under Ministry Policy. Their silence on the matter is astounding.
If the Ministry Policy contravening ban that emerged in Halton was an early indicator, the recent denial to form a GSA in Mississauga confirms that there is a real, systemic problem here with Catholic School Boards and their ‘support’ for queer and trans youth. And it confirms the Ministry’s lack of courage — not to mention its complicity — in the active discrimination of queer and trans students across the province. If the Ministry is serious about inclusion and equity and the welfare of its students — particularly their right to equal treatment with respect to services, goods and facilities, without discrimination because of sexual orientation** — it will start coming out in support of these students. Silence is no longer an option, and much less in the 21st century.
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Contact Name: Casey Oraa
Contact E-mail: caseyoraa@gmail.com
*SOURCE: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/extra/eng/ppm/145.html
**As outlined in Article 1 of the Ontario Human Rights Code
