A child psychiatrist says that a new policy is not the answer to the high rates of STIs and teen pregnancies in the province
The province has told schools in Saskatchewan that they must now tell parents about the sexual health education curriculum and let them opt their children out of it.
Experts, doctors, and the official Opposition are sounding the alarm on the move, calling the new policy harmful and worrying.
Dustin Duncan, the Minister of Education, made the announcement on Tuesday morning. He also said that schools will need permission from parents or guardians to change the preferred names or pronouns of students younger than 16.
Duncan said that school boards must stop working with outside groups like the ARC Foundation and the SOGI 123 program, which teach about sexual health and promote an open-minded view of sexual orientation and gender identity, right away. Teachers will be the only ones who can talk about sexual education in the classroom from now on. In the meantime, the province will look at the tools it has for teaching.
“We want to make sure that students can do well and that parents are more involved in their children’s education.”Fifteen of the 27 school divisions already have a version of this policy when it comes to teaching about sexual health,” Duncan said.
He said that the sexual education policy will be more consistent if it is applied to all 27 school divisions.
“From now on, we’ll talk about this with school districts. We’ll talk to the parents about this. “What the parents are telling us is that they want to be more involved,” Duncan said.
At the press conference on Tuesday, Duncan was asked if the “opt-out” clause could hurt children. He said that is one of the things the Ministry of Education will talk to school divisions about.
Duncan said, “Maybe there will be other resources if a parent objects to a resource being used.” He also said that he thinks parents need to step up and be more involved in teaching their children about sexual education.
There are worries about sexual health
Tamara Hinz, a child psychiatrist in Saskatoon, said that the province’s announcement made her feel bad.
“I was both very surprised and very sad. “I think this probably caught everyone in the province by surprise,” Hinz said. “I think it’s a bad idea to teach about reproductive health and consent in a different way than other subjects.”
WATCH|A child psychiatrist says she is upset about what the government has decided:
Hinz said that there are many studies that show a strong link between the lack of sex education or poor quality sex education and the rates of sexually transmitted infections and unwanted or teen pregnancies.
“Especially in a province like Saskatchewan that already has very high rates of HIV and syphilis, it just blows my mind that we would take a step back in this kind of really important education.”
Julian Wotherspoon, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Regina, said that letting people choose what information children get won’t help with Saskatchewan’s high rates of sexually transmitted infections, teen pregnancy, and domestic violence.
Wotherspoon, who is a mother, said, “I think this is an overreach by the government and maybe just a misunderstanding of our role as parents.”
“It’s a gift when my kids bring home things they’ve learned in school that they want to talk to me about. Schools are places where our kids can go to learn more about what’s going on in the world. And it’s our job as parents to bring them home and talk to them.”
LISTEN: New rules about sexual education have been put in place:
After an incident at Lumsden High School in June, when a Planned Parenthood sexual health presenter brought sexual education materials with graphic content to the school, the policy has changed. Duncan told school boards that any upcoming presentations by Planned Parenthood Regina would have to be put on hold because of this.
Duncan said on Tuesday, when asked about it, that the situation “partly” led to the change in policy, but that there were other reasons, like feedback from teachers and parents about the sexual education curriculum.
Planned Parenthood agrees with the province that only teachers in Saskatchewan should teach about sexuality.
“I do think that more teachers should teach sex education and related topics in the classroom. But what teachers tell us is that they don’t have the skills to do that. Wotherspoon said, “They don’t have tools that are easy to get to.”
She said that Planned Parenthood would like to help teachers get this training.
“We’d rather help teachers out so they have the tools they need to do their jobs well.”
Both Wotherspoon and Hinz said that the province should talk to and listen to experts in sexual health and education.
“Whether it comes from offices of children’s advocates or mental health experts or sexual health experts, these are the people who should be telling policymakers about these really important issues,” Hinz said.
‘Not responsible leadership
Carla Beck, leader of the Saskatchewan NDP, said that the new policy on sexual education was “harmful.”
“I wouldn’t say I was disappointed. She said, “But this is a new low.”
She said that parents have always been able to find out what their children learn in school.
“They’ve always been able to go to the school or call the teacher to talk about keeping their kids out of certain classes if that was what they wanted.”
Beck said that the Opposition wants age-appropriate, evidence-based sex education. He also said that the new policy is a problem, especially given how many STIs there are in Saskatchewan.
“The government thinks that the problem is that there is too much information. “That’s not good leadership,” she told him.