Last week we published a story detailing a Burnaby Parents' Voice candidate's concern about hateful and racist remarks being published online via a gay media's website.
The candidate, Gordon World, went to a Burnaby school district meeting and blamed the school district for creating an atmosphere where he and/or others would be exposed to hateful and ugly racist remarks.
His reasoning, if I've got this right, is if the school district had involved the concerned parents early in the policy process then they wouldn't have had to go so public with their concerns and opinions. When they went public with their concerns, it attracted attention and media coverage. That, in turn, alerted other advocacy groups, who, in turn, attacked the parents who were opposed to the gay-friendly policy. And so on, and so on.
This week we learn that a Burnaby teacher, and another unidentified individual in the school district, have both received death threats because of their support for a policy that would help create a safer environment for gay students in the school system.
If there can ever be a moment when hate and prejudice can be reduced to irony - then this is that moment. It seems not to have occurred to those opposed to the anti-homophobia policy that the reaction to the whole discussion merely underlines the need for an anti-homophobia policy in the schools.
For readers who are just catching up on the whole debate - this is it in a nutshell: Burnaby Parents' Voice is a slate that sprang from a deep-seated opposition to the school district's gay-friendly policy. The opponents of the policy - before they became media savvy - defended their position on some pretty basic grounds: They felt that the policy would teach their children that being gay was, well, OK. And that was in direct contradiction to their personal and/or religious beliefs. Similar to the old arguments creationists made about teaching evolution in schools - the parents believe that the school should not teach their children things that contradict their own belief system. In my opinion, they have the absolute right to object to the policy, to teach their children what they want to, and to pull their children out of public schools if they want a religious-based belief system. The parents lost the battle, the policy passed after an extended review. And the parents, rightly and smartly so, decided to, given the timing of a civic election, form a political slate to get elected and change things from within. Good for them. It's what we encourage people to do. If you don't like something, get involved and change it.
So, for doing the democratically correct thing - again, we say good for them.
But someone in their group realized quickly that a one-plank platform based on opposition to a gay-friendly policy in the schools - particularly considering how much homophobia there is and how many young people are committing suicide when faced with a lack of support in schools - might just look a bit narrow, perhaps even discriminatory or hateful.
So candidates now talk about more parent involvement in curriculum choices, more flexible school arrangements, less talk about sex and more about math. This sounds pretty darn good to parents who are feeling powerless in a system seemingly managed by the teachers' union and district bureaucrats with a lot of letters behind their names.
I listened to one well-spoken Parents' Voice candidate on CBC Radio last week. She hit all the right notes about parental involvement and very skillfully avoided the gay issue. If I was a parent who had not been following the policy controversy, I would have been very tempted to vote for her. And, who knows, she may very well be a great potential trustee. But as she has already shown me that she is not up front about why she is running under the banner, Parents' Voice, her candidacy is very unsettling.
Parents' Voice didn't start because they wanted more say in healthy snacks in schools, more say in fundraising for computers, more say in field trips - they started because they don't want an antihomophobia policy in Burnaby schools.
For some of them to disguise this in a flurry of other wish-list items smacks of deception and a deliberate attempt to hide their agenda, something they vociferously accused everybody else of doing.
You may have a difference of opinion on what should or should not be taught or even discussed in schools - but one thing that you hope parents will model is honesty, and this isn't a good example of that virtue.
