Trustee Criticizes School Board for Handling of Parent With Concerns Over Sexual Material

Waterloo Region District School Board trustee Mike Ramsay. Handout

A Waterloo District School Board (WRDSB) trustee released an open letter on Twitter to parents, students, school staff, and the greater community Monday, criticizing the school board for responding to a parent’s concern with an “insulting tone” in an open letter to the public.

Mike Ramsay, a former police officer, raised concerns with the way the school board handled the Jan. 16 appearance a parent made before the school board committee. David Todor spoke to the board about survey questions his daughters, aged 7 and 9, were asked relating to sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Who is interested in knowing my daughter’s sexual orientation?” Todor asked. He said these questions were none of the school’s business.

“Mr. Todor made it clear that he was not happy about the questions being asked. He felt they were intrusive and invasive,” said Ramsay.

Todor also raised questions about a library book called “The Bluest Eye,” which Ramsay said includes discussions of “incest, rape, pedophilia, and bestiality.”

Todor read some sections of the book out loud to the board. In response, the board adopted a motion that Todor’s questions would be referred to staff for further reply.

Public Response

The reply came in the form of an open letter published on the Board website on Jan. 20, which criticized the comments made by a parent during a presentation to the board.

The letter did not name Todor, but Ramsay said that the parent was “attacked in everything but name.”

The open letter by WRDSB said, “Simply because a parent ... disagrees ... does not give them the right to make false claims of pandering or facilitating child abuse or pedophilia.”

The letter stated that “while framed as questions, the tone is accusatory, often coupled with inflammatory language and misinformation.”

The Board said that as the comments were made at a public meeting, “we have decided to answer them publicly.”

“This behaviour is egregious, although it is a tried and tested method to attack public education in an effort to reverse human rights and equity protections of marginalised groups,” the Board continued.

Ramsay alleges the Board’s letter was released by Board staff, without the content being considered by the Board of Trustees and without the entire Board agreeing to it being released. WRDSB was contacted but unable to immediately reply.

Ramsay said he had hoped that with a recent election, a new board would “focus on student achievement and well-being rather than preachy displays of holier-than-thou sanctimony.”

Ramsay, who was unable to reply by press time, told reporters that Cindy Watson, another trustee, attempted to find out who wrote the letter and authorized it for publication, “but no clear answers were forthcoming.”

Watson, along with a third trustee, Bill Cody, also came forward to defend parents who raised concerns about sexual content in schools. Watson, a 22-year board veteran, said she had never seen a parent responded to in this way and was “completely shocked.”

Watson told reporters the board’s response was “excessive” and “heavy-handed.”

‘Legitimate’ Concerns

Ramsay said that he supported the book being included in the library for high school students, but “in good conscience dissent[ed] from the Board’s process in releasing its letter of January 20, as well as the approach and tone of the letter.”

The trustee said the concern of the parent was “legitimate,” and in his view, questions about which books “ought to be included in the school library system and questions about age-appropriateness” are “fair game for public discourse” by the board.

Ramsay criticized the board, which “unfairly disparages the motives of Mr. Todor.” The trustee added that it implied the parent’s concerns “were not honestly made in good faith,” and that the father has “an underlying agenda of attacking public education, reversing human rights, or undermining the equity protections of marginalized groups.”

“There is zero evidence of any such intentions,” said Ramsay, who was suspended last year by the board for a period of time.

He suggested that the Board’s “irrelevant arguments, groundless accusatory approach, and insulting tone” of the letter did a “disservice” to the parent.

Ramsay said he wanted parents to bring concerns to the board, ask questions, and be “comfortable” bringing their voice “to the table without fear of being cut off, publicly ridiculed,” or having their motives or character “denigrated.”