Ontario school boards still in the dark on sex-ed teaching plan: association

TORONTO — With less than a month before classes resume, Ontario school boards say they still have not received teaching materials related to the older sex-ed curriculum the province expects them to use this fall.

A spokeswoman for the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association says that to her knowledge, the boards have also not received any instructions on the issue from the Progressive Conservative government.

The government announced last month that it would fulfil its campaign promise to scrap a modernized version of the curriculum — which included warnings about online bullying and sexting — and temporarily reinstate an older version last updated in 1998 while it conducts consultations on the document’s future.

But there has been confusion about what teachers will be expected to teach following conflicting messages from Education Minister Lisa Thompson, who told reporters last month that only a portion of the curriculum would be rolled back, only to reverse course hours later by saying the full document would be scrapped.

A spokesman for the minister said Thursday that school boards would receive instructions and materials “in the near future,” but did not immediately respond when asked whether that would happen before school starts in September.

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The previous Liberal government had updated the sex-ed curriculum in 2015.

Opponents, particularly social conservatives, objected to the parts of the plan addressing same-sex marriage, gender identity and masturbation, and Premier Doug Ford vowed during the spring election campaign that a Tory government would replace the document with a teaching plan that was “age appropriate.”

Tory House Leader Todd Smith said Thursday that the government has been clear about its expectations when it comes to sex ed.

“We have told the teachers that they should be teaching the curriculum that was taught in 2014 while we have these public consultations,” he said in a news conference highlighting the government’s actions over the summer.

“They understand the situation that we’re facing in the province right now,” adding he expects teachers to be “professional.”

The government has said the consultations for a new curriculum would begin in September but has given few details on how they will be carried out.

The province’s two biggest teachers’ unions have spoken out against the switch to the older curriculum and vowed to defend any of their members who go off book in order to help their pupils.

“We know that we have members who feel trapped between their obligation to follow employer direction and their ethical imperative to keep students safe,” said Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.

“We will defend to the hilt any member who, in the good faith exercise of professional judgment, strays outside the confines of the 1998 curriculum in her or his students’ best interests.”

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press