According to an April 30 report by the National Post, many Ontario parents revealed that public schools did not ask for consent before referring to their minor child by a different name and pronouns, resulting in child-parent relationships being torn apart.
(LifeSiteNews) — Ontario parents have condemned pro-LGBT school policies that have seen teachers withhold information about their children’s desire to “transition” their gender.
According to an April 30 report by the National Post, many Ontario parents revealed that public schools did not ask for parental consent before socially “gender transitioning” their children, resulting in child-parent relationships being torn apart.
“I think teachers and parents should be on the same page and should have more communication, not less communication, about everything to do with the child,” one mother revealed. “It’s damaging to the child. I think it’s damaging to the family structure.”
In one case, parents only learned that their 14-year-old daughter Claire had “socially transitioned” – a term used to describe when a gender-confused person starts going by a different name and pronouns – at school when a Christmas school report referred to the girl as “Carl.”
“Carl was doing really good,” a teacher said in a end of the term report.
“My husband and I looked at each other,” Robin recalled, and asked, “Who’s Carl?”
The family later learned that their daughter had told a teacher that she felt like a boy and the teacher had “established that our child would be he/him by a new name at school without us knowing.”
“The presumption was that we were bad parents — even though they knew us,” Robin said. “It put a wedge in our ability to communicate and made our child feel like we were indeed unsafe,” she continued. “There are authority figures basically telling kids that you should keep this from your parents.”
Of the ten families who spoke to the National Post, half revealed that their child had secretly “socially transitioned” their gender at school.
The parents said they faced major obstacles with school board policies that kept them out of the private lives of their minor children. They also condemned school policies for withholding information about their children, which they explained undermined their family unit.
Many Ontario school boards have policies requiring teachers and staff withhold students’ private information from their parents.
For example, the Toronto District School Board(TDSB) policy states that a student’s permission must be acquired before parents can be informed of their child’s decision to “gender transition.”
“A school should never disclose a student’s gender nonconformity or transgender status to the student’s parent(s)/guardian(s)/caregiver(s) without the student’s explicit prior consent,” the TDSB states in its guidelines.
Similar policies are in place at school boards across Ontario, including the York Region District School Board, Thames Valley District School Board, and the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.
As LifeSiteNews previously reported, the Kingston-area Limestone District School Board told staff that they could be disciplined for supporting parental rights, using terms like “boys and girls,” and holding “right wing” views.
The students who were the subject of the National Post report were all girls and had never previously expressed any gender discomfort. While some of the students fell on the autism spectrum, almost all of the students’ belief that they were a different gender coincided with the pandemic, online learning and stunted social interaction.
“They’re using trans-identification as a way to cope with other issues that are not being addressed by the mental health-care professionals that we’re supposed to be placing our faith in,” said a mother in Ontario’s cottage country
Christina, a parent of a 12-year-old girl, explained that her daughter’s gender dysphoria represented an underlying mental health crisis. She further revealed that her daughter only began struggling with her gender during the pandemic.
“I was very depressed and hated my body for not being more masculine. I began self-harming and having suicidal thoughts,” Christina’s daughter explained.
“Because the school was hiding a lot of stuff from my parents, I was just trying my best not to accidentally tell my parents about that stuff,” she said.
“My principal, she talked to me a few times, and she said that she understands that I’m in a very bad position; that my parents are not doing what they should be, they’re harming me, and that if I ever need to talk to a children’s aid worker, she can always call them for me,” the young girl continued.
While Ontario schools work to withhold information from parents, both Alberta and Saskatchewan have introduced legislation to ensure parents are informed of their children’s decisions in school.
“Saskatchewan and Alberta agree that the key figures in children’s lives are their parents, and our provinces are both committed to supporting families and children so that they can work through unique needs together,” the provinces wrote in a joint letter in defense of parental rights.
A Saskatchewan teacher wishing to remain anonymous previously told LifeSiteNews that she feels guilty about keeping secrets from parents and supports the decision to keep parents informed.
“I fear that we are not supporting students or parents when we keep secrets,” she explained. “We have many students using alternate names, which sometimes changes frequently during the year, and then are asked by parents if we were aware of the changes after the fact. I feel responsible for keeping the secret and I don’t think it’s fair. I think schools are already taking on too many ‘parent roles’ and it’s important that parents play the ‘parent role’ not teachers!”
