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Parents' Voice their displeasure with Burnaby's anti-homophobia policy

A group of parents are accusing the Burnaby School Board of having a "hidden agenda" for proposing a district policy to prevent heterosexism and homophobia.

In a press release issued yesterday before a planned rally outside the school board meeting last night, The Parents' Voice, an ad hoc group of district parents, claimed the Burnaby School Board (BSB)'s proposed policy 5.45 Homophobia/Heterosexism, was created solely with the input of "activist" teachers and their "allies," shutting out parents, religious leaders, and medical professionals.

"The conduct of the Trustees and administration staff in the development of this draft policy clearly violates the BC Human Rights Act and Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, not to mention the School Board’s and (BSB)’s own codes of conduct," reads the statement, referring to the section of the Code that states members of the school community should treat everyone with respect.

According to the BSB website, the policy aims to remove bias and prevent harassment because of gender and sexual orientation in the district. If passed, Burnaby will become the 13th school district to pass a policy against homophobia in British Columbia.

In an interview with The Tyee, Parents' Voice spokesperson Charter Lau said the group recognizes that lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgendered, transsexual, and queer youth need protection from harassment, but protection from discrimination because of sexual orientation is covered by the BSB's Code of Conduct. He says the new policy indicates there must be something wrong with the Code of Conduct, and the Parents' Voice wants to know what.

The BSB denies excluding anyone from the public consultation process, which has been extended until June 3rd. Board Chair Larry Hayes says the board has gone to great lengths to communicate with those for and against the policy about the public process, but they haven't heard any new arguments lately and they have to make a decision soon.

"Our timeline—although not set in stone—is to have this wrapped up by the end of the school year," he told The Tyee.

"So we wanted to give a reasonable amount of time for feedback, and at one point we have to say we're going to accumulate all of the material and information that we've been given and use that to rework our draft policy if we feel changes are necessary."

The Parents' Voice claims the district has a "hidden agenda," arguing they haven't been forthcoming with information on how the policy will affect curriculum. Lau told The Tyee the group issued a Freedom of Information request to the board concerning curriculum changes, but were told it would cost $1,400. They have since appealed, but haven't received a response.

Hayes says the Parents' Voice hasn't received any documents about curriculum changes because there won't be any.

"What we had said in our draft policy, and it's probably something that has been misunderstood, is we used the phrase that we would embed this policy in our curriculum, which we have explained to a number of them means that it not be as part of the curriculum or part of a curriculum change but an attitude change across the entire curriculum in the district," he told The Tyee.

Katie Hyslop reports on education for the Tyee Solutions Society, and is a freelance reporter for a number of other outlets including The Tyee.

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