School District 57 is now accepting nominations for candidates in the upcoming by-election until May 12th. While I hope that there will be some strong candidates that come forward, I am worried that we are going to see candidates who are only running to push their homophobic/gender identity views and/or opposition to Indigenous reconciliation in schools that we have seen in past elections.
At the last school board meeting, we saw homophobia rear its ugly head once again when a person in the gallery was so triggered by local PGDTA President Darryl Beaureguard's SOGI presentation that he decided to interrupt the meeting on numerous occasions. At first, the person made out to present himself as a defender of democracy but it didn’t take long for his true reason for interrupting the meeting to come out when he started complaining about SOGI policies in schools.
We need trustees who can recognize the sneaky tactics of people who claim they are standing up for democracy or educational outcomes but are really wanting to combine an issue that most people can agree with like wanting the district to focus on improved reading and then casually slipping in their opposition to SOGI policies. Their hope is that people will let their anti-SOGI comments slide because they led with an education issue or protection of democracy argument. But these comments shouldn’t go unchecked by parents, the public or the board of trustees.
Parents shouldn’t let homophobic or anti-Indigenous reconciliation candidates slide into trustee positions uncontested. As Darryl Beaureguard pointed out in his presentation to the board, anti-SOGI activists are organizing and are running coordinated campaigns in elections all across the country. When they don’t get elected, they are busy disrupting board meetings and putting homophobic banners up on the cutbanks as we have witnessed in Prince George.
There are two things parents can do to help ensure a strong board of trustees. Talk to your neighbours and friends and encourage people that you feel are strong leaders to run for a trustee position. The second is to encourage as many people you can to come out and vote on Saturday June 17 as voter turnout is usually low. Let’s get our district back on track by electing trustees that want to protect an inclusive and safe environment for students to learn in.
Richard Parks
Prince George
