Local schools will soon have to introduce more gender and sexuality topics into their physical education curriculum, thanks to a new report by the Ontario Ministry of Education.
The report, Shaping a Culture of Respect in Our Schools: Promoting Safe and Healthy Relationships, makes a variety of recommendations to target sexual harassment and discrimination in all publicly funded school boards.
Jeremy Dias, the founder of a national organization called Jer’s Vision, worked with the Ministry to draft recommendations for the report.
Jer’s Vision encourages youth to address discrimination in their schools and communities.
“Catholic schools will see it as only a recommendation (after the changes are implemented in 2010),” he says. “I don’t know if they’ll see it as a policy document.”
The Ottawa Catholic School Board had no comment.
Lisgar Collegiate Institute heard a speech from Dias in September in an attempt to make their school safer.
But Julie Cutts, English teacher and staff co-ordinator for the Lisgar Gay Straight Alliance, says she still frequently hears students using homophobic slurs such as, “That’s gay."
The report found this type of language was a trend across the board.
The report suggests that “topics of gender-based violence, homophobia, sexual harassment and inappropriate sexual behaviour are introduced in an age-appropriate way beginning in Grade 6 and are developed and studied in greater depth in Grades 7, 8 and 9.”
In many cases these topics are not being discussed. Colin Findlater, a physical education teacher at Lisgar says transsexuality issues don't often come up in his health class. He says these issues are likely something his students do not know a lot about.
“Knowledge brings understanding; you fear what you don’t know,” says Dennis Stimson, co-ordinator for the Ottawa chapter of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.
Both of Stimson’s sons waited until after they had graduated high school to tell friends and family they were gay.
He says if the changes to the curriculum had been in place earlier, his sons might have been more comfortable talking about their sexuality.
“Kids have said to me before how much they appreciate health class," Cutts says.
"They get all this crazy information from their friends . . . it’s so great to get into a health class and ask a teacher.”
However, the questions asked in health class rarely touch on gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queer (GLBTQ) issues, Findlater says.
He says he prefers to let students decide what they want to talk about, and his teaching format will not change dramatically when the curriculum is updated.
“If there’s a bunch of students in front of you and they don’t want to talk about it, you don’t talk about it,” Findlater says.
Overall, he says students are fairly accepting of diversity. He hopes the new curriculum will open the minds of those who are not as forward-thinking.
Dias says he is “cautiously optimistic.”
“It’s a good first step but it requires the Ministry to keep the ball rolling.”