After a Canadian high school student filed a human rights complaint against her school district, saying that her rights as a nonbeliever were violated by being required to attend a course on sexual purity taught by a conservative Christian group, school officials agreed to reconsider the curriculum. The anti-abortion group that taught that abstinence education course, Pregnancy Care Centre, won’t be invited back next year.
Emily Dawson and her mother, Kathy, lodged a formal complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission after Emily was required to attend a two-day abstinence class in order to graduate. The complaint alleges that the Pregnancy Care Centre’s course used scare tactics, like misleading information about STDs and negative stereotypes about single parent homes, to dissuade students from having sex. The Dawsons identify as agnostics and were offended that they had no option to opt out of a course taught by a conservative religious organization with an explicit agenda.
Now, thanks to the public backlash sparked by their allegations, Emily’s school district is looking for new speakers to cover topics related to sex ed.
“We’ve heard a lot of concerns expressed from the public over the last several days about guest speakers invited to present on the topic of sexual health education,” the board wrote in a statement released Friday. “We are asking our schools in the fall to use different presenters so that we can continue this conversation, and focus on meeting the needs of students and parents.”
Well good for Emily! That is incredibly brave of her to fight for her right not to be exposed to religious indoctrination and misinformation is her classroom.
How the school did not know realize that the America based anti-abortion, pro-abstinence group would be selling their children slut shaming snake oil is a little beyond me.
The Pregnancy Care Centre is affiliated with a network of right-wing “crisis pregnancy centers” in the United States called Care-Net. Both groups are opposed to abortion and advocate for sexual abstinence until marriage. In an interview with CBC News, a researcher at the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada said it’s somewhat surprising that a Canadian public school would use a sexual health curriculum from a U.S. group, since Canada has been “far ahead of the U.S. when it comes to teaching about sexual health free of ideology or religion.”
Yeah America has a history of outsourcing our religious zealotry to other countries. Just look what we have done in Uganda.
I'm so glad that this mother and daughter fought back. The Canadians have seemed to be so much more reasonable than we Americans about so many things. Bravo Canada for not caving in to the religious right!
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
*shakes head* I have no problem telling kids that the less sex you have at as a kid the better off you'll probably be. I truly believe that. It's got nothing to do with sexual prudery and everything to do with the fact I think sex is more than just "feeling good."
ReplyDeleteBut that's not education. That's my personal advice as a fifty year old person who's seen a lot. I tell kids don't drink too much either.
Kids should learn how their bodies work. It's that kind of knowledge that will spare them problems later on. Even if they never have sex until marriage, one day they're going to want kids and knowing how their bodies work beyond penis-in-vagina is going to help them there.
Abstinence isn't education: it's just "Bad dog! No!" and our kids are not pets.
Good for her! I'm seeing a few young people standing up to this "snake oil" and I like it!
ReplyDeleteThis "purity" shit is creepy. The dominists are trying to take over the schools....when you VOTE don't neglect school board even if you DON'T have kids in school...I have taken to scouring the net to find out just where they stand, I don't want them in the schools even if I don't have kids in school anymore. That is how they get their foothold in, Didn't Sharia Heath start in school board?
Vote Blue, Vote for REAL FREEDOM! The above goes for judges and Sheriffs etc...also,too!
Senate To Vote On Bill That Would Reverse Hobby Lobby Decision
ReplyDeleteSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has scheduled a vote this week on a bill that would reverse the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.
The Protect Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act would restore the contraceptive coverage that is guaranteed in the Affordable Care Act and would protect women from employers who want to impose their religious beliefs on them.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/07/14/senate-vote-bill-reverse-hobby-lobby-decision.html
I didn't know they could DO THAT!!!! Why don't they reverse Citizen's united while they are at it? Great news, Thanks!
Delete"Hell hath no fury like a pissed off Canadian woman" or at least that's what my husband says.
ReplyDeleteLittle Rabbit
Yay for my Canadian sisters! So glad to see these two ladies stand up and take on their local school district's terrible requirement for graduation. Religion has never been part of the public school system in Canada, at least when I attended eons ago, and I'm sure proud that this group of religious zealots will no longer be allowed to share their sharia-like beliefs to anymore Canadian kids. Little Rabbit - my husband would agree with your husband also :)
ReplyDeleteThere are probably more fundies per square kilometre in Alberta than in any other province. That Hagee idiot made inroads several years ago and his minions (with the help of Prime Minister Harper) are still trying to infiltrate the Canadian government. harper's wife is an Albertan evangelical.
ReplyDeleteThe sooner (actually October 2015) we vote these pseudo-Christians out, the better for all of us. The rest of Canada (including the once VERY Catholic Quebec) understand the practical and political reasons for keeping religion out of government.
My daughter took a Teen Issues course in an Anchorage high school a few years ago. The teacher had several invited speakers to show different points of view. One was called "Lets Talk", but it was run by CPC (Crisis Pregnancy Center) CPC is pro-life "counseling" center sham that only offers giving birth as an option and is heavily fundie. The information they gave out was shaming and blaming and medically incorrect. My daughter called the speaker out on every falsehood and saw through their BS. The teacher said she would never invite them back.
ReplyDeleteFirst, bravo to this brave young lady and the mother who raised her right and supported her in this endeavor.
ReplyDeleteIt's nobody's right to force their religion driven beliefs on others in Public Schools. I was actively involved in my kids educations, nothing like this happened in their school, but there was one biology teacher who handed out her own adenda on mimeograph sheets about Creationism, along with a list of suggested reading material, bible tracts and "testimonials" that supported the fables. Several parents called, wrote and met with the principal, and she wasn't allowed to finish the year out, they fired her on the spot.
You teach what's on the curriculum, not what you "believe" should be taught.