Two N.B. school districts adopt their own LGBTQ2 student policies amid Policy 713 controversy
Global News
'We felt that students were being made unsafe by the changes made to Policy 713,' Anglophone East District Education Council member Kristin Cavoukian said Wednesday.
Both the Anglophone East and Anglophone South District Education Councils in New Brunswick have adopted their own policies regarding gender identity and other matters relating to LGBTQ2 students.
The decisions come as the provincial government’s changes to Policy 713, a province-wide policy affecting LGBTQ2 students, continues to generate controversy.
“We felt that students were being made unsafe by the changes made to Policy 713,” Anglophone East District Education Council member Kristin Cavoukian told Global News in an interview on Wednesday.
The provincial government has made changes to Policy 713, including requiring parental consent for staff to refer to students under 16 by their chosen names and pronouns.
“We felt that (the changes) were poorly thought out, and there was a lack of consultation both with people with lived experience and with experts. And we saw the possibility for this to have terrible impacts on some of the most vulnerable students in our school” Cavoukian said.
On Tuesday evening, the Anglophone East District Education Council unanimously voted in favour of Cavoukian’s motion to create a policy that “strengthens Policy 713.”
That policy doesn’t require a parent’s consent to use a student’s chosen name and pronouns, and also states all students can participate in school activities in a “safe, welcoming way consistent with their gender identity.”
“Going forward, next year’s (staff) will be able to treat students with the same amount of dignity that they have this year,” she said.
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