Open Letter To My School Division
My open letter to our local school division's board of trustees, with regard to attempts to ban books from our public school libraries
Let’s be real
As I am sure we are all very aware, there is a significant difference between education for the sake of prevention, and encouraging children to engage in certain acts.
I would love to shelter my child from all the evils of the world, but I would be naïve and negligent as a parent were I to do so. I’m sure educators know more than most that information is power and protection.
I want to clarify a few things the first delegate stated at the board meeting on Monday, June 19, as some of her statements were inaccurate.
Misrepresenting the Criminal Code of Canada
First, I wish to draw your attention to minutes 9:30 and 10:30 in the recording of the meeting. The delegate claimed to read direct quotes from the criminal code of Canada, specifically sections 152 and 163.
While doing so, this community member very clearly left out the very relevant phrase “for a sexual purpose” of both these codes—not once, but twice—significantly altering the meaning and intent of the law to further her own agenda.
The correct quote for section 152 is as follows:
“Every person who, for a sexual purpose, invites, counsels or incites a person under the age of 16 years to touch, directly or indirectly, with a part of the body or with an object, the body of any person, including the body of the person who so invites, counsels or incites and the body of the person under the age of 16 years.”
The correct quote for section 163(c) is as follows:
“any written material whose dominant characteristic is the description, for a sexual purpose, of sexual activity with a person under the age of eighteen years that would be an offence under this Act.”
Sex ed is not illegal
As I am sure we are all aware, sexual education is not “for a sexual purpose”, it’s for educational, health, and safety purposes. Comprehensive sexual health education is protective, not predatory. A 2021 study by Goldfarb & Lieberman concluded that comprehensive and inclusive sexual education led to the following outcomes:
* appreciation of sexual diversity
* dating and intimate partner violence prevention
* development of healthy relationships
* prevention of child sex abuse
* improved social/emotional learning
* increased media literacy
This study, among others, have concluded:
“substantial evidence supports sex education beginning in elementary school, that is scaffolded and of longer duration, as well as LGBTQ–inclusive education across the school curriculum and a social justice approach to healthy sexuality”.
If the delegate is concerned about the risk of child victimization, then we all have the same goal of protecting our children and students from harm, therefore we should all be in favour of the provision of inclusive and comprehensive sexual health education in our schools.
Misdirection and malicious intent
Other statements made by the delegate were somewhat unclear, given the initial subject of the delegation was to be about books with sexual content in the schools as regards to sexual education materials.
As an avid reader, I recognized multiple quotes read by the first delegate during Monday evening’s meeting. I would like to bring your attention to two pieces of literature.
The first is a memoir entitled “Lucky”. This memoir about a sexual assault, written by Alice Sebold and published in 1999—a book I read more than 20 years ago. While the content is very disturbing and upsetting, it is the real-life description of an attack which the author endured, and she was brave enough to share her story.
As I said at the outset, while I would love to shelter my child from these horrors, I cannot, because doing so would leave him more vulnerable and at risk. Education is protective.
The second book was a collection of prose and poetry by Kaur Rubi from a book called Milk and Honey, published in 2014. Once again, this author’s writings were from her own lived experiences, which is why these books are found in the non-fiction section of the library.
Given that students in a middle school are at least 12 years of age, they will have gone through, be going through, or soon to go through puberty. Many of these students will begin to develop relationships beyond friendships, thus it is imperative that we provide them with factual information about their changing bodies, sexual health, and healthy relationships.
Families who wish to provide their own sexual education to their children have every right to do so on an individual basis. This does not give them the right to dictate what books my child should or should not have access to in a public school library.
Inclusive education leads to inclusive communities
I want my child to grow up in a community where differences and diversity are celebrated, not feared. The best way for this to continue outside our home is for our students to be immersed in school communities that are truly diverse and inclusive.
If there are a small number of parents who do not wish this for their children, then perhaps public school is not the right place for them. However, my hope is that school can be a place where these students have exposure to acceptance and inclusion, so they can end the cycle of fear and hate towards those who are different.
Our children follow our lead.
If we show them that differences are wonderful and not scary, that sexuality is healthy and normal, and we role-model respectful relationships, then hopefully the next generation will not have to write letters like this one.
One day acceptance and inclusion will be forgone conclusions, not something that marginalized people are forced to fight for day in and day out.
© Jillian Enright, Neurodiversity MB
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References
Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, s 152. [Online].
Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, s 163(1)(c). [Online].
Kaur, Rupi. (2014). Milk And Honey Andrews McMeel Publishing.
Sebold, Alice. (1999). Lucky. Simon and Schuster.
Goldfarb, E. S., & Lieberman, L. D. (2021). Three Decades of Research: The Case for Comprehensive Sex Education. Journal of Adolescent Health, 68(1), 13–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.07.036