Hello Ontario educators, I’m hoping this post will provide some much needed clarity around Richard Bilkszto’s tragic death as it relates to DEI training. First and foremost, let me say that I support DEI training, but it needs to be done by people who are “awake,” not by people who are “woke.” This next part is going to be hard for some of you to hear. Being “woke” is not the same thing as being “awake” or “enlightened.”
Read MoreAn Open Letter to Doug Downey Regarding Kayla Lemieux, the Trans Teacher in Oakville, Ontario
Dear education friends and Attorney-General of Ontario Doug Downey,
I’m writing today with a significant update about the current “lay of the land” of the education system in Ontario, Canada.
As it currently stands:
When a man – who is transitioning to a woman – shows up to class wearing oversized prosthetic breasts with protruding nipples (as is the case in Oakville, Ontario, Canada with teacher Kayla Lemieux), it’s an expression of gender identity and expression.
According to the Halton District School Board, implementing a dress code for teachers would expose the board to “considerable liability” for violating the Ontario Human Rights Code. Further, they say, new rules can’t even be considered at this moment because of ongoing collective bargaining with teacher unions.
Yet:
When an education executive – who is female and not transitioning – speaks up about gender and race discrimination at the school board where she works as a function of her job, as an expression of her gender identity, and when professionally dressed, the female executive is publicly walked off the job, called “subversive” and “loony,” and promptly demoted – as was the case in the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board in Peterborough, Ontario a few years ago.
Yes, that is indeed the current “lay of the land” in the education system in Ontario, Canada.
Read MoreChaos at the Thames Valley District School Board - An Open Letter
Dear Ms. Naylor, Mr. Case, Mr. Dhir and Ms. DeGuire, I am writing because recent activities at the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) in London, Ontario have highlighted what I believe to be further discrimination within the education system in Ontario and the urgent need for a new governance model for education in Ontario.
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