Manitoba educators say protests over LGBTQ rights, sex ed in schools exploit parents with misinformation

The head of Manitoba's largest school division says nationwide protests that hit the province on Wednesday involved people "deliberately stirring the pot to create misinformation" about public education.

Wednesday's "1MillionMarch4Children" protests contained "certain fringe elements that are trying to create these divisions of … parents who have concerns, and now they're trying to exploit that," Winnipeg School Division superintendent Matt Henderson said.

In Manitoba, hundreds participated in the nationwide protests against LGBTQ-inclusive education and sexual education policies in schools. Protesters hit the streets in Brandon, Dauphin, Steinbach, Winkler and at two separate events in Winnipeg.

"At the end of the day, a healthy public school system needs to ensure that everybody feels safe," said Henderson, adding that Manitoba's health education curriculum is infused with age-appropriate messages that teach children how to create inclusive environments.

"If we're not doing that in the K-12 system, we're going to create a society that's divisive and hateful," he said. "There are some kids who are in our classrooms that may have two moms. There are some kids who might live with a different family … but everybody belongs."

On Wednesday, protesters in Winnipeg marched holding signs that said "no more gender indoctrination," "let kids be kids," and "respect parental rights."

They were met by counter-protesters when they arrived at the Manitoba Legislature grounds, and police stood between the two groups to ensure safety.

Manitoba's public health education curriculum is all available online and begins in kindergarten, which is when students learn the names of body parts and their right to privacy.

In Grade 2, students are taught about reproduction mainly through the animal kingdom, as well as how to practise respectful behaviour and how to identify physical differences and similarities between themselves and others.

A note for teachers included in the Grade 2 curriculum cautions educators to be sensitive to "family configurations" and "gender classification issues" when teaching the materials. It suggests using a 1989 children's book, Heather Has Two Mommies, to celebrate diversity.

Jennifer McGowan, assistant superintendent of student services at Winnipeg's Seven Oaks School Division, says the curriculum shifts as children's bodies begin to change in Grade 5, focusing on bodily development and how to deal with it rather than sexualized content.

The curriculum for Grade 5 notes that teachers should be sensitive with respect to sexuality and gender roles since not all families and/or cultures "value the same things." However, it says educators should encourage children to respect each other's differences and celebrate diversity.

Grade 5 is also when the curriculum has students begin to examine and discuss how the media portrays gender and sexuality, but teachers are cautioned to allow students to come to their own conclusions and opinions about the materials they analyze.

Beginning in middle school and into high school, students are taught subjects such as sexuality, gender roles, sexually transmitted infections and human reproduction.

McGowan says accessing the information can mean life or death for some students, particularly those who are marginalized, including students who are part of the LGBTQ community. 

"That doesn't mean we need everybody to think and feel the same way," she said. However, "if you're coming to school and you don't feel safe, you're not learning much — so we need to create space for everybody to feel like they belong, because they do."

She says parents of students at the Seven Oaks School Division are notified when "explicit" sex education classes are scheduled, and they can ask for information on the materials or opt their children out.

The curriculum also includes background information for teachers and parents, which is not to be handed out to students. It includes definitions for sexual and gender identities, noting "sexual orientation occurs on a continuum."

Protests sparked 'true fear'

Topics not covered in the formal curriculum also come up frequently and naturally during classroom conversations, said McGowan, because children are curious and pick things up outside of school.

Gillian Roy, co-executive director of Manitoba's Sexuality Education Resource Centre, says children will get the information in the curriculum one way or another.

"Young people always have questions, and they can either go on the internet and find things that are not factual … [or we can] provide them with factual, non-judgmental information."

Roy says the centre, which offers the sexual health workshop "Teen Talk" to schools and organizations around the province, had to close its office in Brandon because of the protests on Wednesday, after staff received hate mail.

"There was true fear and concern there," she said.

The movement behind Wednesday's protest hides hateful messages under the guise of caring for children, said Roy.

"One thing that was illustrated for me yesterday was that … a lot of folks that they're attracting are people who really do care about their kids."

Henderson says recent debates around parental rights in Manitoba schools are misguided. Parents are free to contact their children's educators at any time, and schools want to be transparent and work in partnership with them, but he said student safety is their top priority.

For example, if a 17-year-old student revealed to educators that they wanted to transition to another gender and didn't feel safe telling their parents, Henderson says the school division is obliged to protect that student and is not required to inform parents.

"We're making professional judgments based on the genuine fears and anxieties of a child who is at an appropriate developmental age," he said, adding every situation is different and is treated on an individual basis.

Henderson says indoctrination accusations against Manitoba's public education system are also misplaced, since the curriculum teaches children how to have healthy relationships with each other.

"We're not teaching young children the mechanics of sexual intercourse, whether it's heterosexual or homosexual — that would be inappropriate, but what we are teaching is that we're a community," he said.

The school division wants parents to have conversations about any concerns regarding the provincial sex ed curriculum, but events like Wednesday's protest are not the way to go about it, said Henderson.

"There's a real community-based way to do this, and a really loving way to do it, as opposed to screaming at each other from across the street, which isn't productive."

Schools fight misinformation about sex ed

1 year ago

Duration 2:38

Winnipeg school divisions are trying to combat what they say is misinformation — about what students are being taught in school — around sex education. They say the nationwide protests earlier this week were rooted in untruths that caused unnecessary fear among parents.