Gay students pose questions for faith-based schools
We can't compromise on gay rights
In a multicultural society, what do you do when two different sets of cultural and ethical values come into conflict?
What do you do when two different moralities collide? That's the difficult dilemma that currently faces Edmonton Public Schools as it tries to balance the equality rights of gay, lesbian and transgendered students and parents, with the traditional religious beliefs of some of its faith-based schools and programs.
Earlier this year, board trustees voted to establish a plan to make its schools more welcoming, respective and inclusive for all parents and students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification.
"The board makes policies to support people who are struggling in the school system," says trustee Christopher Spencer, who first proposed the idea. "Gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans youth have higher dropout rates and higher suicide rates. Bullying incidences are extremely high. We felt there was a need for additional support."
The proposed policy -which will be voted on, in its final form, this fall -is quite limited in its scope.
In Alberta, schools boards don't write curriculum -that comes directly from the province. The school board policy doesn't say anything about what teachers can and cannot teach. Indeed, under the recently amended parental rights clause of Alberta's human rights legislation, parents have a right to remove their children from classes that address the issue of sexual orientation. Nor does the board policy deal with the hiring or firing of gay, lesbian, or transgendered staff. Both provincial and federal law already protect workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
So if the policy has no impact on classroom curriculum or hiring policy, why bother to have it? Spencer says it's to ensure that public school culture is safe, respectful and welcoming for every child and parent. It sounds simple enough. But Edmonton public is not your ordinary secular school system. Within the public, fully-funded school system you'll find a Jewish school, Talmud Torah, a formerly private school that joined the public system in the 1970s. You'll find a cluster of Christian schools, from a number of different faith traditions, which used to be private. You'll find seven regular public schools which integrate a Christian curriculum, called Logos, as part of their educational model. And you'll find Sakinah Circle, a new Muslim elementary program, which incorporates the teachings of the Qur'an into classroom teaching.
It's a wonderful Edmonton expression of multiculturalism, tolerance and inclusion, which allows children from a wide variety of faith backgrounds to be integrated into the free public system, instead of isolated in expensive sectarian private schools. It's a revolutionary model that enriches learning and cross-cultural understanding for every student and teacher in the system.
But now, for some of those faithbased schools, the proposed board policy on gay respect and inclusion stands in direct conflict with doctrine. This month, the Edmonton Logos Society put out a newsletter "alert" to all Logos parents, warning them that the policy could mean that "teachers and principals would no longer be able to express freely in their classrooms that the homosexual lifestyle is not in accord with their Christian beliefs." That, said the news alert, could violate the schools' charter rights to freedom of religion.
The proposed board policy is also a "hot-button issue" for parents at the Meadowlark Christian School, says Orville Chubb, executive director of the school foundation. A K-9 school with almost 300 students in west Edmonton, Meadlowlark Christian got its start as a private Baptist school. Chubb says it now has students from 70 different Christian denominations. Chubb says some parents are concerned that the board is now dictating moral perspectives, which are in conflict with biblical principles. For them, he says, it's an erosion of religious freedom.
"It's not that we are anti-gay in any way, shape or form," Chubb says. "We just need to be able to articulate the moral element to all Christianity ... and our Christian community is not able to accept that homosexual acts are not immoral. If you don't feel comfortable with your children in that kind of milieu, don't send your students here."
So are we at a moral and cultural impasse?
It's true. Tolerance and respect have to work both ways. Christians and other people of other faiths who oppose homosexual practice on moral grounds have a right to have their traditional values respected, too. Parents are entitled to teach their children that homosexuality is an immoral "lifestyle choice." That's their Charter right. But it is not their Charter right to have those beliefs affirmed or upheld within the taxpayer-funded mainstream public school system.
The public school board has an overarching moral duty to safeguard the emotional and physical wellbeing of all its students, including those gay and lesbian students who attend religious schools, and whose parents may not know, or accept, that their own children are "queer." It can't change the rules to exempt some schools.
If the policy isn't universal, it could abandon the very students who need support most.
Our public education system is healthier, overall, when as many of our children as possible attend public school, rather than leaving for private schools, as they have in other communities, such as Calgary.
I'd like to see the school district and the dissenting parent groups spend the summer, working to find a wording they can all live with -one that respects the individuality and unique cultures of the faith-based schools, while still upholding the civil rights of gay students and parents.
If no compromise is possible, if those parents can't accept the public board's policy, it may be time for them to leave the public system. Those parents have a right to their beliefs, but the public school board doesn't have a responsibility to endorse them.
So basically, we need the funding of all the fundies obsessed with erasure of anything GLBT in our public school system, so we should reword the policy? For the record, the word in the policy that has the Christians upset is "affirm," when talking the about the rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender students and staff.
SOURCE
In a multicultural society, what do you do when two different sets of cultural and ethical values come into conflict?
What do you do when two different moralities collide? That's the difficult dilemma that currently faces Edmonton Public Schools as it tries to balance the equality rights of gay, lesbian and transgendered students and parents, with the traditional religious beliefs of some of its faith-based schools and programs.
Earlier this year, board trustees voted to establish a plan to make its schools more welcoming, respective and inclusive for all parents and students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification.
"The board makes policies to support people who are struggling in the school system," says trustee Christopher Spencer, who first proposed the idea. "Gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans youth have higher dropout rates and higher suicide rates. Bullying incidences are extremely high. We felt there was a need for additional support."
The proposed policy -which will be voted on, in its final form, this fall -is quite limited in its scope.
In Alberta, schools boards don't write curriculum -that comes directly from the province. The school board policy doesn't say anything about what teachers can and cannot teach. Indeed, under the recently amended parental rights clause of Alberta's human rights legislation, parents have a right to remove their children from classes that address the issue of sexual orientation. Nor does the board policy deal with the hiring or firing of gay, lesbian, or transgendered staff. Both provincial and federal law already protect workers from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
So if the policy has no impact on classroom curriculum or hiring policy, why bother to have it? Spencer says it's to ensure that public school culture is safe, respectful and welcoming for every child and parent. It sounds simple enough. But Edmonton public is not your ordinary secular school system. Within the public, fully-funded school system you'll find a Jewish school, Talmud Torah, a formerly private school that joined the public system in the 1970s. You'll find a cluster of Christian schools, from a number of different faith traditions, which used to be private. You'll find seven regular public schools which integrate a Christian curriculum, called Logos, as part of their educational model. And you'll find Sakinah Circle, a new Muslim elementary program, which incorporates the teachings of the Qur'an into classroom teaching.
It's a wonderful Edmonton expression of multiculturalism, tolerance and inclusion, which allows children from a wide variety of faith backgrounds to be integrated into the free public system, instead of isolated in expensive sectarian private schools. It's a revolutionary model that enriches learning and cross-cultural understanding for every student and teacher in the system.
But now, for some of those faithbased schools, the proposed board policy on gay respect and inclusion stands in direct conflict with doctrine. This month, the Edmonton Logos Society put out a newsletter "alert" to all Logos parents, warning them that the policy could mean that "teachers and principals would no longer be able to express freely in their classrooms that the homosexual lifestyle is not in accord with their Christian beliefs." That, said the news alert, could violate the schools' charter rights to freedom of religion.
The proposed board policy is also a "hot-button issue" for parents at the Meadowlark Christian School, says Orville Chubb, executive director of the school foundation. A K-9 school with almost 300 students in west Edmonton, Meadlowlark Christian got its start as a private Baptist school. Chubb says it now has students from 70 different Christian denominations. Chubb says some parents are concerned that the board is now dictating moral perspectives, which are in conflict with biblical principles. For them, he says, it's an erosion of religious freedom.
"It's not that we are anti-gay in any way, shape or form," Chubb says. "We just need to be able to articulate the moral element to all Christianity ... and our Christian community is not able to accept that homosexual acts are not immoral. If you don't feel comfortable with your children in that kind of milieu, don't send your students here."
So are we at a moral and cultural impasse?
It's true. Tolerance and respect have to work both ways. Christians and other people of other faiths who oppose homosexual practice on moral grounds have a right to have their traditional values respected, too. Parents are entitled to teach their children that homosexuality is an immoral "lifestyle choice." That's their Charter right. But it is not their Charter right to have those beliefs affirmed or upheld within the taxpayer-funded mainstream public school system.
The public school board has an overarching moral duty to safeguard the emotional and physical wellbeing of all its students, including those gay and lesbian students who attend religious schools, and whose parents may not know, or accept, that their own children are "queer." It can't change the rules to exempt some schools.
If the policy isn't universal, it could abandon the very students who need support most.
Our public education system is healthier, overall, when as many of our children as possible attend public school, rather than leaving for private schools, as they have in other communities, such as Calgary.
I'd like to see the school district and the dissenting parent groups spend the summer, working to find a wording they can all live with -one that respects the individuality and unique cultures of the faith-based schools, while still upholding the civil rights of gay students and parents.
If no compromise is possible, if those parents can't accept the public board's policy, it may be time for them to leave the public system. Those parents have a right to their beliefs, but the public school board doesn't have a responsibility to endorse them.
So basically, we need the funding of all the fundies obsessed with erasure of anything GLBT in our public school system, so we should reword the policy? For the record, the word in the policy that has the Christians upset is "affirm," when talking the about the rights of gay, lesbian, and transgender students and staff.
SOURCE