In the time leading up to New Brunswick’s highly publicized changes to its school gender policies, parents complained to the education ministry about how gender and sexuality issues were treated in schools.
The Epoch Times requested only emails from those who identified themselves as parents of children in New Brunswick schools. The names of people who sent the emails were redacted.
Many of the emails express concern over a PIE training session held in Fredericton on May 5. It was open to teachers from across the province on a Professional Activity Day and was a large-scale event supported by the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association.
The topics for discussion at the event, according to PIE’s flier, included “queering sex ed” and “drag story time” under the banner of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) for K–12.
“I am very concerned at the direction of the education system when I see things like this being promoted. Let me stress that I am not against any individual or identified group of people. I am against the sexualization of kids and this is what I believe is happening,” one parent told the education minister via email.
The parent expressed other concerns beyond the PIE event, including a feeling that the education system no longer welcomes families with religious values.
“There are many families who share my background of faith and traditional beliefs who are feeling more and more marginalized,” the parent said.
Email Excerpts
A parent who wrote to Mr. Hogan on Oct. 31, 2022, complained about books that include transgender issues which a school district had recommended to its teachers.“Kids today cannot spell, read, cursive write, make change for money, you know, the basic skills needed for society,“ the parent said. ”The school system is instead teaching transgender and LGBTQ2+ in the schools.”
The parent said his or her child’s school has pride flags “everywhere” and that it has “events promoting and supporting” LGBT, which is not in line with their family’s faith.
Another parent, who wrote to Mr. Hogan on Nov. 16, 2022, asked why pride stickers were on windows throughout the elementary school and why the school administration had replaced the Canadian flag with the pride flag.
A parent with three children in the public school system asked Mr. Hogan if he is aware of the many youth “going through the devastating process of de-transitioning because they were indoctrinated at such a young, vulnerable age to believe they are someone they are not.”
This parent, along with others, said gender discussions in school are no longer about acceptance of others but rather about requiring “full conformity.” Another parent described LGBT advocacy in schools as “aggressive.”
“We must stop and consider the weight of adult ideas and decisions that are being placed on young children, ideas and decisions they are not mature enough to process and understand.”
The grandparent noted statistics that show transgender youth are at high risk of suicide. “Why would we push something that has such detrimental effects onto our children?”
It gave as an example rumours at the time about schools offering litterboxes for students who identify as cats. In response to such rumours, school boards across Canada have released statements saying this is not true.
Some parent emails did refer to the litterbox rumour, but the concerns raised were varied. In May, Imprint Youth Association and others speculated that parental backlash against the May 5 Pride in Education event may have spurred the Policy 713 change. The ministry’s choice to include emails commenting on the event in its response to The Epoch Times request suggests it was indeed significant in motivating the change.
Other Complaints
The province’s public safety minister, Kris Austin, rose in the legislature in June to talk about communications he received on gender issues in schools.He said he looked into an incident involving a middle-school girl who had changed genders at school without her parents’ knowledge.
At the age of 8, she was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other conditions and started having suicidal thoughts. By the time she entered middle school, she had successful coping strategies in place. But the school ignored the strategies and encouraged her to transition genders, her mother told Mr. Austin.
When the mother found out what was going on through another student at the school, she worked with her daughter to start using her coping strategies again. She said her daughter is now thriving and is happy with her birth sex. The mother said the school “actively contributed” to her daughter’s mental health emergency.
Mr. Austin said this is an example that illustrates why a change to Policy 713 was necessary.
Opponents of the policy change have said it violates a child’s privacy and can be emotionally damaging for children who wish to transition.
After New Brunswick changed its school pronoun policy, other provinces began discussing a similar move.
The policy formerly required teachers not to tell parents about a student’s name or pronoun change without the student’s permission to do so.
“As a teacher, I’m not comfortable with using the preferred name of a student without the parents’ permission,” one teacher said. “As a mother, I would not want a teacher calling my children by another name just because my child requested it.”
