Address the issues

Safety: child safeguarding and privacy

Many of us are aware of issues related to the physical safety of students and staff. Fewer notice that some Board policies and practices may put students at risk by weakening protective boundaries under the guise of education, health, or inclusion.

• Graphic sexual content includes illustrated sex-instruction titles and passages depicting child sexual abuse. Making such content available—and treating objections as intolerance—can desensitize children to sexual content. Board officials refuse to review and discuss the books they make available to our children.
• Surveying students about sexual preferences normalizes underage sexuality as routine institutional business. Many survey questions also probe into private family life, which—given recent data breaches—puts students and families at risk of criminal exploitation.
• Directing staff to conceal gender identity changes from parents (AP1235) severs the child from the adults legally responsible for their care. Administrative procedures should default to parental disclosure.
• Coercing students to disclose personal health information is unethical. The WRDSB is pressuring families into such disclosures by threatening to carry out 20-day suspensions on behalf of public health authorities. Because no such authority exists in the Education Act, the WRDSB cannot—and will not—lawfully suspend students. Yet schools inappropriately ask parents to remove children from school.

Proper child safeguarding means the Board should not sexualize childhood, should not by default query or disclose intimate student data, and should never by default exclude parents from potentially life-changing decisions.

What We Can Do

Review the Book Selection Process: A recently defeated motion to "undertake a full, transparent, and independent review" of educational resource selection procedures should be brought back before the Board. Parental consultation and consent for sexually explicit materials is crucial.

Make Invasive Surveys 'Opt-In': WRDSB seeking private details about student's lives and sexuality should be intensely scrutinized. Parental knowledge and informed consent is non-negotiable. Hard copies of survey questions should be sent to parents with a clear opt-in notice.

Notify Parents of Gender Transitions: The AP1235 directive that WRDSB "staff shall not notify parent(s)/caregiver(s) that a student's gender identity is different than their sex assigned at birth" must be updated to make parental notification mandatory.

Stop Coercive Disclosure of Private Health Information: Public schools are for education and should never be used to coerce students and families into disclosing, against their will, sensitive health records. A strong Board of Trustees can act to protect student medical privacy.

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