Skip to content

Little backlash for local school boards following sex-ed curriculum changes

THUNDER BAY -- Local school board officials say they’ve had little to no backlash about provincially mandated changes to Ontario’s sex-education curriculum.

THUNDER BAY -- Local school board officials say they’ve had little to no backlash about provincially mandated changes to Ontario’s sex-education curriculum.

Spokesmen from both the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board and Lakehead Public Schools say rumblings from southern Ontario, where many parents are planning to keep their children home the week of May 4 in protest of the new curriculum, have yet to arise locally.

“There has been no backlash,” said Lakehead Public School’s Bruce Nugent in an email reply about the planned changes to how sex-education will be taught in Ontario classrooms.

The changes, scheduled to be go into practice in September and unveiled in February, sparked controversy almost immediately, as the curriculum promised to introduce sexual health topics at earlier ages.

Many parents believe the curriculum starts at too young an age.

For instance, according to the Toronto Star, Grade 1 students will be taught the proper names of body parts, including genitals, at the urging of child-abuse experts.

Same-sex relationship discussions will be taught to students as young as Grade 3, while a year later students will start learning about the concepts of online safety, as well as text messaging and sexual pictures. And, as puberty starts arriving at younger ages, it too will be introduced in Grade 4 classrooms.

By Grade 6 students will start to learn about masturbation, healthy relationships and consent and in Grade 7 the dangers of sexting, sexually transmitted diseases and, to the dismay of many parents, oral and anal sex.

Groups like the Campaign for Life Coalition, a conservative Christian organization, argue that “normalizing” things like homosexuality disregards the religious and moral beliefs of many families and “aggressively undermine” the beliefs of traditionally principled families.

The new curriculum, the first update since 1998, has also met with opposition in many ethnic communities, particularly with Muslims who plan to keep their children home in droves next week in the Toronto area.

According to Mike Thompson, the Catholic Board in February provided a letter to parents from in response to the new curriculum, from director of education Pino Tassone.

In the letter Tassone said Catholic Board schools have been teaching the vast majority of the curriculum in its Fully Alive program, adopted three decades earlier.

“Although some of the content has been reassigned, with the expectation that it be delivered in earlier grades, we are confident that we will be able to deliver the revised curriculum within the contest of our Family Life program, in a way that is consistent with Church teachings and our faith tradition.”

Thompson said to date no parents have attempted to opt out of the new program, an option made available to parents by the province.
“None,” he said, when questioned.

“We have not experienced this,” Nugent said in reply to the same question. 

The public board is directing concerned parents to the Ministry of Education’s website for answers to their questions. Nugent said he expects the opt-out option is something that will be discussed at the individual school level.



 



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
Read more



push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks