Trustees clash over LGBTQ+ curriculum question

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This article was published 27/09/2023 (1088 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Familiar battle lines were drawn at the Brandon School Division on Monday evening, when members of the board of trustees argued over the prospect of adding LGBTQ+ inclusive history to its curriculum.

This idea was originally brought forward at the Sept. 11 school board meeting by local transgender activist Leila Praznik, who stated that the addition of new courses or programs would provide students with a broader perspective on lesser-known parts of Canadian history.

These topics, according to Praznik, could include Canada’s decriminalization of homosexuality in 1969, Toronto’s bathhouse raids in 1981, the passing of Bill C-16 in 2017 and local historical figures like Pte. Frederick Lea Hardy, the only known queer soldier etched into the Vimy Memorial following the First World War.

“To know our history is to be able to take solace in the fact that we have existed since the dawn of humankind and how we have progressed as we have fought for recognition, representation and our own human rights,” she said on Sept. 11.

During Monday’s meeting, the vast majority of trustees threw their support behind Praznik’s idea, asking senior administration to prepare a formal report on what this LGBTQ+ content could look like.

Jim Murray was the first BSD trustee to voice his approval of this topic on Monday, believing that its educational value lines up with current history courses that highlight the mistreatment of Indigenous people in residential schools and the enslavement of Africans through the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

“If we don’t study history, we are doomed to repeat it over and over again,” he said. “So if there was a way of incorporating [LGBTQ+ history] into our curriculum, then I would support that 100 per cent.”

The only holdout on Monday was trustee Breeanna Sieklicki, who believes that this topic is far too “contentious” to be taught in BSD schools and should instead be left for parents to inform their children about it at home.

“Parents know when their children are ready for certain conversations and how to best go about starting that conversation,” Sieklicki said.

“We do not … need to create further divide in our schools or community by saying you need to learn more about the LGBTQ content and agree with it, all of it, or you are deemed hateful, discriminatory or worse.”

Sieklicki’s comments were in reference to a May 23 BSD school board meeting, during which the board rejected a proposed book review committee that was originally brought forward two weeks earlier by former trustee Lorraine Hackenschmidt.

During her original presentation, Hackenschmidt said this committee is needed to review and potentially ban certain books from the division, with most of her examples of objectionable material having to do with sexual health and LGBTQ+ issues.

While many trustees voted against this initiative, seeing it as a bigoted form of censorship, Sieklicki maintained her support for the book review committee, believing that certain kinds of subjects should not be endorsed by the division.

“We’re creating a huge divide in our community right now,” she said on Monday.

“We as a division need to leave parenting for the parents and focus on helping our students be prepared to succeed in post-secondary careers and education. And for this reason, I am not in favour of adding LGBTQ content to our curriculum for the Brandon School Division.”

Sieklicki received major pushback from other members of the board on Monday, with Kim Fallis telling her that not all students, especially LGBTQ+ pupils, have the option of discussing these topics with their parents at home.

“I would ask you to think about the number of children who have come out to their parents as being gay, lesbian, transgender and have been removed from their family totally, with no support, no home, no money, nothing,” Fallis said.

BSD chairperson Linda Ross told the board that she has witnessed this very same thing transpire during her lengthy career as an educator and administrator, which, in her opinion, further pokes holes in Sieklicki’s belief that this topic should be entirely left to parents.

“So I would present to you that parenting rights are important, but they do not supersede the rights of children,” Ross said. “And if parenting rights are such that children are going to be abused, then those parenting rights cannot be allowed to continue.”

The topic of “parental rights” has been a major talking point during the ongoing provincial election, with the Progressive Conservatives promising to increase parental oversight in the classroom by modifying the Public Schools Act.

Opponents of this initiative, including local Liberal and NDP candidates, believe that the PCs’ endorsement of “parental rights” is a blatant anti-LGBTQ+ “dog whistle,” especially following new pronoun policies that have been passed in New Brunswick and Saskatchewan.

In both provinces, children under 16 must now receive parental consent before they can officially change their preferred first names or pronouns at school, prompting concerns that places of learning are becoming an increasingly hostile place for LGBTQ+ youth.

“And I would just like to comment that children are not going to succeed academically if they do not have a safe place in which to develop and grow,” Ross said on Monday.

The atmosphere of Monday’s meeting grew increasingly hostile as this conversation dragged on, with supporters of Sieklicki and the remaining trustees offering cheers and jeers from opposite sides of the board room.

The biggest negative reaction from Sieklicki’s camp came after Ross directly told her fellow trustee that her vote didn’t “really matter,” since she was in the “absolute minority.”

The next BSD school board meeting is scheduled to take place Oct. 10.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com