Ontario education minister warned of `impacts´ of sex-ed rollback, human rights tribunal told
(The Star Toronto Raptors)

Senior ministry staff warned the education minister that rolling back the sex-ed curriculum could be perceived as “outdated� and “not serving the needs of today’s students,� an Ontario human rights tribunal heard Thursday.That’s according to a document introduced as part of a human rights challenge launched by an 11-year-old transgender child who contends the province’s repeal of the 2015 Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum discriminates against LGBTQ students.In a memo to Education Minister Lisa Thompson, dated July 25, 2018, assistant deputy ministers Martyn Beckett and Denys Giguère wrote about the “impacts� of quashing the 2015 HPE curriculum for elementary students, and replacing it with an interim one that included sex-ed material from 1998.“There would be no mandatory learning of the following topics: consent, sexting, homophobia, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression,� wrote Beckett and Giguère.They also pointed out that such a move “could be perceived by the public as outdated and not serving the needs of today’s students.� And, they noted, “some school boards have voiced their concern with utilizing sexual-health expectations from 1998.�Nonetheless, in late August, Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government moved ahead with an election promise and repealed the modernized HPE curriculum, which some social conservatives felt was not age appropriate. It was replaced with an interim document from 2010, which includes sex-ed material from 1998. Read more: Consent big concern during sex-ed consultations, Minister Lisa Thompson saysSex-ed curriculum ‘doesn’t talk about consent enough,’ Education Minister Lisa Thompson saysTransgender girl says sex-ed repeal made her nervous about returning to schoolThe government also launched an extensive public consultation process on a range of educati ...