Ontario’s new Conservative government could punish teachers who wilfully continue to use a graphic sex education program initiated by the previous Liberal government. As Global News reports, Premier Doug Ford promised “action” if teachers disregard the repeal of the largely discredited program.
The elementary teachers’ union recently promised legal assistance to any teacher who faced discipline for teaching the old curriculum.
(RELATED: Canada Teachers Union Encourages Graphic Sex Ed Program)
“We will not tolerate anybody using our children as pawns for grandstanding and political games,” Ford said. “Make no mistake. If we find somebody failing to do their job, we will act.”
The repeal of the Liberal-era sex ed program was a promise delivered by the Ford government. When the previous administration pushed the program though the provincial legislature, it did so as parents demonstrated in the streets, saying the curriculum was too graphic and too focused on alternate sexual tastes.
Teachers will utilize a “revised interim curriculum” for now, the government said.
But Tanya Granic Allen, a former leadership candidate for the Ontario Conservatives and the president of Parents as First Educators (PAFE), told The Daily Caller Thursday that while the Ford government is on the right track, it still needs to ensure that “unscientific gender identity theory” is removed from the curriculum.
PAFE has collected more than 10,000 signatures on a petition demanding the total repeal of the Liberal sex ed program.
Addressing Ford’s promise to discipline teachers, Granic Allen said, “These are tough words and they give the impression that the old curriculum somehow excludes the things that some of the more radical teachers might want to teach. But with ‘gender identity theory’ front and center in the Thompson curriculum, Premier Ford’s comments are rendered toothless.”
Parents will have a place to complain if they hear that teachers are overstepping their bounds. The government website will be available for parents to identify any complaints.
But Granic Allen disagrees, saying, “Well I think it is hardly fair to the teachers if the government is not clear on what the teachers are in fact permitted to teach.”
Yet the provincial government insists it will protect parents. “Our government will be prepared to take regulatory and legislative action to ensure that the rights of parents are protected,” reads a statement from Education Minister Lisa Thompson. “Our end goal across all of these activities is simple: create an education system that respects parents while preparing our students for success.”