It takes a village to raise a child; it really does. My husband and I raised four here in Weyburn, and I have no qualms or shame in saying that we did not do it alone. Many institutions, individuals and professionals helped in our efforts along the way.
Yet last week the Sask Party chose to carve off a chunk of the village with their policy decisions around sexual health education, and name and pronoun changes in schools.
This change was clearly made for political reasons, the timing on the heels of a recent byelection after which the United Party crowed that their relative success led to the new policy. I guess that’s ‘just politics’ these days. What’s more worrying is that making this change also suits the personal religious views of (former) Minister of Education, Dustin Duncan, and a ‘few’ parents he consulted while ignoring expert opinion.
The Sask Party has taken a pitchfork to many of our villagers the past few years: allow me a short list.
Teachers are a lifeblood of learning and experience and care for our kids, and most of us are immensely grateful this is so. But our government erects signs outside our communities telling us these people are greedy, while now asking teachers to add sexual health education to their load because professional outside agencies have been banned from delivering it.
Child psychologists understand the way our kids’ minds work and how to help them overcome and deal with things in life that can be outside our understanding as parents. No Premier Moe, parents are not always experts on everything about their children. I certainly was not.
Our government’s hypocrisy is on full display. They mouth support for children’s mental health while ignoring the expertise of psychologists when it comes to the mental health of particular groups of kids, such as queer and trans.
School board trustees are elected volunteers making the best decisions they can for the kids in their schools. I sat on a school board and am aware of the tricky line trustees must walk, and now our government has overstepped their jurisdictional space and won’t deign to ask trustees their opinion on policy matters related to the schools they govern.
My list would also include coaches and music teachers. Yours might include daycare workers and bus drivers. What our lists would illustrate, whether we recognize it or not, is just how many people are involved and who are influential in raising our kids.
In making their decision about sex-ed and pronoun use in schools, the government ignored the opinion of everyone on the list with any expertise, and instead chose politics and religion.
Dustin Duncan’s kids attend Harvest City Christian Academy in Regina, a school with a mission to provide “Bible-based education in a Christian environment.” This private school is one that now receives increased funding from a policy change made by Duncan in 2022. It would be incredibly naïve to believe all is merely coincidence.
I don’t care how religious groups view the world, but their faith should not be influencing political decisions affecting all of us, some with different backgrounds and faith. Last I checked, Canadians still believe in the separation of church and state.
Why on earth would we allow our provincial school policy to be influenced this way?
I suppose we’d have to wake up to what is happening first.
Dustin Duncan used his religious perspective to create policy, his view bolstered and politicized by the religious right taking votes away from the Sask Party in the recent by-election. He and his government ignored the best advice from those in our communities who dedicate their lives to helping us raise our children.
Saskatchewan has some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy, STI and STD rates as well as HIV. If this were really about the kids, would we not want to give them all the best and appropriate information we can?
I think our kids deserve better from all of us.
We need to speak up; we need to save the village.
(Anne Lazurko is a writer and the award-winning author of two books. She holds a degree in Political Science and farms near Weyburn.)
