Rocky View Schools (RVS) is reviewing how new Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) guidelines will affect Cochrane schools.
The Alberta government issued a press release on Jan. 13 stating the province was “creating learning environments that respect diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions.” This referred to a 21-page document listing Guidelines for Best Practices, released this year by Alberta Education.
“We here at Rocky View Schools accommodate all students and look at how to provide a caring environment for them,” said Don Hoium, superintendent of RVS. “We will be looking at those guidelines and determining how to continue to care for all students and also to be careful and respecting the needs for all.”
The document was made to assist schools when addressing these needs and the guidelines reflect recent policy shifts in the Alberta Human Rights Act, Alberta Bill of Rights and provincial School Act, according to the press release.
The document lists 12 “Best Practices” including;
– Respecting an individual’s right to self-identification
– Ensuring dress codes respect and individual’s gender identity and gender expression
– Minimizing gender-segregated activities
– Providing safe access to washroom and change-room facilities
– Ensuring students have the understanding, skills and opportunities to contribute to welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environments that respect diversity and nurture a sense of belonging and positive sense of self.
These guidelines have prompted discussion among Cochrane residents voicing their opinions on local social media pages, with a mixed reaction.
A local Cochrane principal said he believes the guidelines are unnecessary, but only because the schools are already doing everything to make sure students are comfortable.
“We do whatever we can to support our kids – I don’t believe you need these guidelines but it is important to recognize in our building as we grow, we are going to have a very diverse population and statistically we are going to have a wide range of kids come in the building with a wide range of needs and I think it is important that we acknowledge that,” said Rob Kimura, principal of Bow Valley High School. “Do we need a policy to do that? I don’t think in our building we do, but there may be situations where they think it is more necessary than other. I don’t have an issue with it because we would support those kids anyways.”
The Best Practice sparking most of the discussion is No. 7, “Providing safe access to washroom and change-room facilities” but Kimura assures that schools only have the best interest of the students. “We are not going to put anyone into an awkward situation knowingly – we would have access in our building to gender-neutral washrooms and change rooms but certainly there would have to be a process for students to get access to those and obviously it is not on a whim,” Kimura explained.
“You can have kids that are overweight that aren’t comfortable changing in the change room and it is not that much different from our perspective where we want to support any kid that doesn’t feel comfortable.
“Really, at the end of the day, our school is about meeting the needs of a lot of kids in our building – every kid is unique and brings something different to the table, so we adjust to the best we can.”
For the full documents go to https://education.alberta.ca/media/1626737/91383-attachment-1-guidelines-final.pdf
