Austin Bender is a Grade 12 student at Springbank Community High School, and like many students his age, he isn’t 100 per cent sure what he wants to do after graduating.
But Bender knows one thing for sure about his future – he wants to pursue something where he can help people, something he feels he has already been doing at Springbank by forming a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) club.
GSAs have been in the spotlight recently in Alberta politics.
Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman brought Bill 202 forward in mid November, compelling school boards to allow GSAs in schools if a student wanted one.
Bill 10 was introduced Dec. 1 in response, as an Act to Amend the Alberta Bill of Rights to Protect our Children.
The proposal would “aim to ensure that students wishing to establish clubs that promote a welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment, including gay-straight alliances, will have clear legal recourse if a school attempts to stand in the way,” according to a statement from Premier Jim Prentice Nov. 27.
Prentice also added, “Bill 202 asks us to cast aside our constituents’ beliefs in parental rights, and in the autonomy of school boards, in order to support GSAs.”
In Bill 10, school boards would not be compelled to allow a GSA, but rather the student would take the request to another level to appeal the decision if the request was denied.
Critics said Bill 10 was a violation of students’ rights, while critics of Bill 202 said it was too narrow and cast aside parental rights and the autonomy of school boards.
In Grade 10, Bender said he was bullied frequently and he recalled knowing exactly how many days were left until he graduated. He was counting down the days because he said he thought the school was not a safe environment.
Now he is counting down the days until graduation for another reason – he said he is scared to leave something that has had such a positive impact, not only on his life, but also the lives of other students at Springbank.
Bender said students used to call him derogatory names, but said he thought this was due to a ‘lack of knowledge’ rather than an attack on his sexual orientation.
He said these words had become ‘norms in our society’ and that these students thought it was acceptable to use them.
“Coming to terms with someone’s sexuality is not an easy thing to do. Hearing that everyday in a negative context made me really start to devalue myself,” he said. “I would come home crying for a couple of weeks and my mom finally said, ‘this is enough.’”
Bender said his mother called school administration and they dealt with the situation very quickly.
“Which made me feel like, OK, there is hope for this,” he said.
In 2013, he attended Camp fYrefly, Canada’s only national leadership retreat for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-identified, two-spirited, intersexed, queer, questioning and allied youth.
Bender said it taught him how to deal with discrimination of all kinds, how to find self-confidence and allowed him to build a support system within the LGBT community.
In September of that year, Bender approached a teacher at school about forming a GSA and was fully supported.
“There was 100 per cent support within the school,” he said.
Bender said there are currently 75 students who are a part of the GSA Facebook group and between 20 to 35 students showing up at their noon meeting each week.
At these meetings, Bender said they break down why phobias about certain topics are the way they are – getting to the root of stigmas and stereotypes.
He said that a lot of people have the misconception that GSAs are just a ‘gay club’, but he pointed out that while they do focus on LGBT issues, they tackle all kinds of discrimination and topics including mental illness, sexism, bullying, racism and more.
“While LGBT issues are very important, that is not all this club is about. It could also be called an equality club,” he explained, adding that no one is forced to identify at a meeting. “The GSA is more so a safe place for all students in the school, not just the LGBT community.”
The group is completely confidential and Bender said they have made it clear that ‘what is talked about stays, but the lessons leave.’
According to Safe Schools Alberta, a recent UBC study showed that odds of homophobic discrimination and suicidal thoughts were reduced by more than half among lesbian, gay and bisexual boys and girls in schools where a GSA has existed for three or more years.
“It has definitely helped a lot of students. I’ve heard firsthand that the GSA at Springbank has saved lives. It has reduced bullying in general,” Bender said, adding that he has heard this feedback from both students and teachers.
Ron Casey, MLA for Banff-Cochrane, supported Bill 10 for what he said are three main reasons – parents need to maintain the right to determine their children’s education, there needs to be support to address the modern needs of students and school boards need to remain autonomous so they can make decisions on behalf of parents.
“What 202 said was that you must establish it. What my position has always been is that school boards are elected and they are there to provide a safe caring environment for your children,” Casey said, adding that school boards need the flexibility to deal with issues in the schools.
Casey said he felt that Bill 202 was too narrow of a focus in only dealing with GSAs and didn’t also deal with a variety of other discriminatory issues that may be occurring in schools.
“This is really about trying to give teachers, school boards and students the support they need,” he said.
In addition to the section pertaining to GSAs, Prentice said that Bill 10 also proposed to ‘enshrine the right not to be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation’ into the Alberta Bill of Rights.
It would also repeal Section 11.1 of the Human Rights Act, which gives parents the right to pull children out of class for sexuality, sexual orientation or religious reasons.
Critics argued that Bill 10 forced students to seek ‘legal recourse’ if a school stood in the way of forming a GSA and that was an unrealistic demand.
In a statement released by Michelle Glavine, president of the Rocky View Teachers Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) Local 35, she said, ‘Prentice’s suggestion that students take this decision all the way to the Court of Queen’s Bench is ludicrous’ and that ‘having those expectations for our young citizens isn’t realistic.’
Casey said that the intention was never for kids to be expected to go out and hire a lawyer and take things to court, but rather that the regulations are set up once a bill is passed and would add detail to the bill as to what the terms and expectations would be.
“The bill is the framework and the regulations end up being the actual working mechanism,” he explained.
An amendment to Bill 10 was brought to the Committee of the Whole Dec. 3 dealing with that section of the bill.
Although Casey was not in the house to vote on it, he said he supported the amendment that said if a student was denied a GSA by their board, then the Education Minister Gordon Dirks would intervene and have one created.
But critics are concerned over a statement made during the debate by MLA Sandra Jansen, who sponsored Bill 10. She said that the education minister would provide a GSA for them “hopefully within the school environment.”
Critics have pointed out that this may force students to take the GSAs off school property.
Bender said that he thinks this would be discriminating.
“By making a GSA have their meetings outside school grounds, the message that I see them trying to make is that you’re not welcome here,” said Bender.
“You are discriminating against a certain group of people by not allowing them to meet on school grounds.”
On Dec. 4 it was announced that Bill 10 would be put on hold for more consultation.
Casey said he doesn’t have all of the details yet, but at this point, he believed that they were going to go back to stakeholders and try to work though some of the issues.
“I won’t claim for a minute that Bill 10 is perfect and I don’t think you will hear anyone saying that it has got all of the answers,” said Casey. “But Bill 10 combined with the regulations may in fact come much closer to being what people need.”
Bender said his mom has reached out to MLAs via email to speak with him about the issue and Bender said he would encourage an MLA to come to a GSA meeting and see what it is all about.
Bender said he would want to have a bill where any student could start a GSA in their school, period, because if a student sees that it is necessary, it probably is.
