Parents make voices heard on school division SOGI policy
By Lethbridge Herald on June 28, 2023.
The Progressive Pride Flag flies overhead as community members opposed to the Lethbridge School Division’s Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression policy listen to a speaker after Tuesday’s board meeting.
Herald photo by Ian MartensAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
Tensions were running high during a Lethbridge School Division Board of Trustees meeting this week where dozens of people gathered to protest a policy that has been in place for over five years.
During the Tuesday meeting there was an opportunity in a public forum where members of the community were given a chance to speak regarding policy 502.2 which refers to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression (SOGI).
Because the board anticipated a high turnout for the public forum portion, which only allows for 15 minutes for people to speak, they asked those interested to submit their names and three were selected at random prior to the meeting.
The three that were selected, in the order they spoke, were Viviana Lartiga Castillo, Mike Richey and Heather Rowland.
The policy has been in place since 2016, with some revisions done in 2018 and 2022. This policy was not part of the agenda for the Tuesday meeting.
Within those changes, point 2.17 was added according to a power point presentation on https://lethsdcommunityengagement.schoolsites.ca/download/418412 which reads as follows,
Inclusive curriculum, resources and access to information – added – p. 18
• The existence of sexual and gender diverse people is often omitted or only included in a highly stigmatized way in classrooms, as well as in the media and popular culture.
• The lack of positive acknowledgment of sexual and gender diversity or queer history makes it difficult for gender and sexual diverse or questioning young people to feel that they have a place in the world.
• The omission of these important groups from curriculum, programs of study, resources, and assessments creates a misconception among many students that sexually and gender diverse people do not exist or are in some way inferior.
Therefore, Lethbridge School Division staff members are encouraged to challenge gender and sexual orientation stereotypes and integrate positive content into teaching and learning on a regular basis.
During Tuesday’s meeting Lartiga Castillo and Richey, who identified as Christians, spoke against SOGI teachings and SOGI policy, while Rowland spoke in favour as her two children are part of the 2SLGBTQ+ community at the ages of eight and 11 years old.
“I’m speaking today as a woman as a mother and a parent. I’m a Christian and today I come to you and see you all as image bearers of Christ – we are all made in his image male and female,” said Lartiga Castillo.
She said that she wished to let them know that she strongly opposed and reject the policies of 502.21 is a SOGI policy and 103.1 the anti-racism and anti-oppression policy and that many parents stand in support of this.
“On the surface these policies address diversity wishing to create inclusive and safe learning environments in schools… but in my opinion this SOGI policy is superfluous and based on ideology and pseudoscience,” said Lartiga Castillo.
She said that the guidelines puts sex on a spectrum which can impose great harms on vulnerable groups like children, women, gay men, and lesbians.
“This false theory of biology distorts human nature, our capacity to navigate the world is rooted in a shared understanding of words and what they mean, we shouldn’t be having debates about what constitutes a man, a woman, male and female, boy and girl, especially in the schools. This confuses our children, this talk of gender fluidity and to use this jargon that is shown in your guidelines as the definitions violates my conscience to lie,” said Lartiga Castillo.
She then spoke about the fact that having groups focused on identity which focuses on group identity over universal shared traits divides people into oppressed and oppressor groups and urges intolerance.
“That division would be creating a situation in which the individuals are no longer celebrated or protected, but rather membership in the official categories becomes the identity, command the attention of victimhood, as well as entitlement,” said Lartiga Castillo.
When Rowland spoke during the meeting, she identified herself as a clinical social worker and a proud mother of two queer children. She said she was at the meeting because the policy directly impacted her family and she was there to share what her children had to say about the SOGI policy.
“My children are young, they are ages 8 and 11. They asked me to share their thoughts on their behalf today. Their understanding of systems and policy is still in development, so when we talked about what they wanted to say I simply asked them the question what do you like about schools having guidelines to better support queer students and their families,” said Rowland.
She said her 11-year-old said she lives a happy life as a bisexual girl and the guidelines are important because children need to have books in schools that show that they are not alone in their journey.
“Not having books makes queer kids feel alone and disconnected, I am bisexual and I like books with queer characters, the queer characters help me feel seen and understood,” said Rowland.
Midway through Rowland’s allotted time around a dozen people got up and left, including one who was escorted out by security as he was being verbally disruptive.
Rowland continued by saying her 8-year-old child was gender fluid and they thought getting rid of diversity clubs will affect children who are different as they would not know who is supporting them.
“If you take away people’s rights to be different genders, then people are guessing and it’s so much better when we just ask for pronouns. When my teachers use my pronouns I feel good inside,’ my kids are very clear about what they like and they don’t like when it comes to queer rights, it’s not complicated,” said Rowland.
After she finished, the public forum portion was over and outside people rallied while listening to Richey speak about being opposed to the SOGI policy.
During the meeting and the rally outside, a half dozen police officers were present to make sure things remained peaceful.
On Wednesday while speaking to the Herald, Board chair Allison Purcell said they gave the public an opportunity to speak as the public forum is open to any subject matter they want to bring forward, but clarified that policy 502.2 was not in the agenda.
“That’s not one (policy) up right now for revising. When we do revise policies, and at the meeting last night there were six policies that we revised and approved, the amendments is through those process and all of our stakeholders are involved,” said Purcell.
She said she is not clear on the reasons for bringing that policy up in the public forum as it has been in place for many years, and made some suggestions to parents on how they can make their voices heard if they want to affect change.
“There’s other avenues for parents to have conversation about concerns that they might have, school councils are a great way and a great method for parents to come forward and have engaging conversations with their school administrators and other parents in their schools. Those are typically held on a monthly basis, as a board we have nearly monthly basis community conversations which is another opportunity to talk to any trustee that comes to them in an open format, and then obviously through our process of how we revise policies,” said Purcell.
She said that if there is a particular concern a parent has on a more personal matter, to bring it up with their child’s teacher, their principal to begin with and also through the other avenues as well.
Purcell said that she is unaware at this point of any concerns being brought forward and encourages parents to speak up.
And when it comes to sexuality or gender identity, she said those are addressed in classes that parents have the right to opt out from.
“Anything of that nature is in your regular health class, which parents can opt out of, so anything of that nature would be part of that,” said Purcell.
She added “social studies also teaches about family and community so there is representation of all families and ELA (English language arts) tries to choose books that represent all diversity including race and family structure.”
-with files from Ian Martens
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41-40
Romans 1:24-32New International Version
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/190987/scientists-explore-evolution-animal-homosexuality/#:~:text=Same%2Dsex%20behaviour%20ranging%20from,even%20more%20prevalent%20across%20species.
while an informative link, thank you for this, i do not believe the discussion should hinge on what is “natural.” rather, leave consenting beings to their preferences, always with respect to the rights of another.
Not sure you are going to convince anyone you have a valid argument by invoking the invisible man in the sky who grants wishes .
that is some hater literature you invoke here. do you support such hate yourself? leave consenting folk alone, unless they are trampling on your rights. non-traditional, socially unconditioned/non-brainwashed folk are doing nothing that undermines your rights.
btw – how do you not see the absurdity and immaturity of what you have pasted here? it is as laughable as it is inane.
How about just live and let live?
In my last year of high school I worked part-time on a dairy farm. Early that fall my boss bought a young bull from a neighbour as a replacement for his aging one. It turned out that the new guy, Bruce, wasn’t interested one bit in the cows and didn’t perform as expected.
Now, I’m pretty sure that Bruce wasn’t groomed or affected by gender-affirming policies; he was just who he was.
How on earth does an 8 year old know they are gender fluid and an 11 year old know they are bisexual unless the parents are pushing them in that direction…
Secondly, these discussions do not belong in an elementary school setting nor should they be providing books or other material discussing this.
cough..the internet..cough
Hmm…I wonder, did Lot and his wife sit around and talk about incest? Is this why his daughters got him drunk and had sex with him? How is that King David sent his best friend into battle so that he could have sex with his best friend’s wife? Hmm…
Is this the same King David that got all sweaty in man-love with Jonathan (Sammy I 18:1)?
When I was 6 years old my best friend said to me one day, “When two boys like each other, one of them will stick their d*** up the b** of the other.” Then he asked, “Do you wanna try it?” I said, “No”, and then asked if he had a Dave Keon rookie card to trade.
I’d much rather such matters are discussed in school led by professionals, than in the sandbox.
Sorry, James123, you could not be more wrong on this question.