The Sea to Sky school board has adopted policies intended to help protect LGBTQ students from harassment. This would include allowing transgender students to use their washroom of choice, and students to be identified by their preferred gender pronoun.
Authorities are also asking school staffers to try to make at least one single-stall, gender-neutral washroom available on all school locations and worksites.
Furthermore, whenever possible, students would be allowed to play for sports teams traditionally segregated by gender in accordance with their gender identity.
It’s a move that in other school districts has been met with, at times, fierce opposition.
And it was something acknowledged by some Sea to Sky trustees.
“I know people who are quite opposed,” said trustee Rebecca Barley, during the policy committee meeting. “We just have to be ready to defend it.”
Protesters and critics have come out against similar motions elsewhere in the Lower Mainland.
Detractors against these policies have said it could jeopardize women’s safety in washrooms; create unfair advantages for transgender women in sports and even infringe on free speech.
However, in the Aug. 29 regular school board meeting in Squamish, there was no one in the audience who spoke up against the motion.
The only people present were school district officials and staff, a person who appeared to be interested in running for the school board and a delegation of parents for a dry grad in Whistler.
It was passed unanimously and swiftly as an urgent policy, meaning that it would forgo second and third readings, as well as impact assessment, where the draft policy is sent out for evaluation by other school district staffers before adoption.
Normally, that entire process can take months. On Aug. 29, it took a day.
The board reasoned it was necessary to implement it immediately before school starts in order to offer protections for the new academic year.
In lieu of an impact assessment, trustees made sure to include a clause that would allow for school district staff to provide feedback for the next few months for possible changes to the policy.
Broadly speaking, Policy 100.4, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, or SOGI, recognizes that LGBTQ students can be more vulnerable to bullying and emotional distress.
In November 2017, the Ministry of Education reported that lesbian, gay and bisexual youth were seven times more likely than heterosexual youth to attempt suicide.
This would be 28 percent as opposed to four per cent.
As a result, the board implemented a number of protections to address these issues.
An LGBTQ policy is already in place in the school district, but this version is stronger and more specific.
Asst. Supt. Chris Nicholson said that the policy was firmly backed by the B.C. Human Rights Code.
Nicholson added that the board is simply giving shape to what the law states.
“That’s legislation,” he said.
As of Dec. 31, 2016, all B.C. school districts and private schools were required to include specific references to sexual orientation and gender identity in their anti-bullying policies.
***Updated as of Aug. 29, 10:23 PDT
