Polarizing debates on topics like gender identity in the classroom are increasingly dividing educators and parents
Whenever jeewan chanicka got out of his car to visit a school in the last academic year, his first as education director at the Waterloo Region District School Board in southwestern Ontario, he scanned the area for anyone that appeared suspicious.Mr. chanicka reported at least three online threats of harm levelled against him and members of his staff to the region’s chief of police.
Although no new laws have been put forward in Canada, a similar rhetoric is gaining a foothold here, too. The Waterloo region, where the rhetoric appears to have gone the furthest, has seen some recent demographic changes. Germans were among the first settlers in the area, and the region still has a Mennonite influence, especially in some of the rural areas. But it has also become a tech hub and recent census data showed an increasing number of residents speaking Arabic and Punjabi at home, highlighting the growing diversity in the area.
“We have to have conversations that are truthful and compassionate and caring. What I can say right now is that the ways that the conversations are happening are putting many at risk,” he told trustees. Carolyn Burjoski, then an elementary school teacher at the board, raised concerns about two books available in elementary school libraries –by M.G. Hennessey – that she felt weren’t age appropriate because they discussed asexuality and transgendered young people.
Jeff Pelich, president of the local elementary teachers’ union, has watched the pushback against the board over the past year. The new director was inheriting a mix of progressive and right-leaning trustees, but he says the tone was never as bad under the former director, who was white. “No student should be excluded or bullied because of their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression,” she stated.
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