EDITORIAL: Parents have rights on gender identity classes

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Given the growing controversy over classes on gender identity taught in public schools, it’s a good time to point out that parents in Ontario have the right to opt out of this instruction for their children.

The provision is contained in the province’s Human Development and Sexual Health curriculum implemented in 2019.

It states parents, “are the primary educators of their children with respect to learning about values, appropriate behaviour, and ethnocultural, spiritual and personal beliefs and traditions, and are their children’s first role models,” adding the sex-ed curriculum does “not replace the role of parents in educating their children about sexual health.”

It says school boards “must develop and implement a policy or procedure that allows for students to be exempted, at the request of their parents” on an individual basis, that “parents must be informed” of it and “there will be no academic penalty for an exemption.”

It provides three options to parents – for their child to remain in the classroom and do other work, leave the classroom but remain under the supervision of the school, or be released to the care of a parent or designate.

According to the curriculum, students in Grade 5 are taught about “factors that may affect the development of a person’s understanding of themselves and their personal identity, including their sexual orientation” and in Grade 8 about “gender identity, gender expressions and sexual orientation.”

Some critics of the opt-out policy, who favour teaching children about these issues in schools, argue it violates the Ontario Human Rights Code.

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On another front, Education Minister Stephen Lecce issued a statement in June during Pride month that it was “incumbent on all school boards to ensure all students – most especially 2SLGBTQ+ students – feel supported, reflected in their schools, and welcomed within our communities” including “celebrating Pride in a constructive, positive and meaningful ways to affirm that 2SLGBTQ+ students know that their educators and staff, school board, administrators, and government stand with them … 

“My message to children in our schools, particularly 2SLGBTQ+ students, is that Ontario’s government sees them, values them, and we are proud to stand with them.”

Given that the opt-out clause doesn’t prevent schools from teaching about gender identity, it’s a reasonable policy recognizing parental rights.