Cowichan Valley #79 – Is gender self-identification good for my child?

School District #79 Cowichan Valley			Oct 20, 2018
School District #79 Cowichan Valley	Decision Makers	Implementation Motion*	Classroom Motion**
Trustee	Croft, Elizabeth	No learning resource vote	?
Trustee and Vice-chair	de Groot, Barbara	No learning resource vote	?
Trustee	Doman, Randy	No learning resource vote	?
Trustee	Hutchins, Rob	No learning resource vote	?
	Kemmler, Johanne		?
	McDonald, John		?
Trustee	Schmidt, Cathy	No learning resource vote	Not running
for example	Candidate Name		Remove SOGI 123 from classrooms
Trustee and Chair	Spilsbury, Candace	No learning resource vote	?
Trustee	Thorne, Joe	No learning resource vote	?
Superintendent	Rod Allen
MLA Cowichan Valley	Sonia Furstenau	May 9, 2017 to October 16, 2021
Former Minister	Mike Bernier	July 30, 2015 to May 9, 2017
Minister of Education	Rob Fleming	July 18, 2017

* Implementation Motion, from Board meeting minutes
While the Board has not yet considered any motion that references the learning resource known as SOGI 123, it does have a related policy in the Board Policy Handbook, as shown below.
Policy 16 – Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression Excerpt: The Board recognizes its responsibility to provide a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment for all students and their families, employees and volunteers, including those who identify as or are perceived to be LGBTQ. The complete one-page policy can be seen here.
Timeline 2016 July 25 – THE BC Human Rights Code is modified with the addition of “gender identity or expression”. 2017 July 1 – Ministry of Education policy delegates approval of Learning Resources to local Boards of Education. Quoting from the Ministry’s policy on learning resources, “The Ministry of Education no longer conducts evaluation processes to recommend learning resources. This responsibility now rests with boards. Board policies and procedures should include a process for ensuring the list of recommended learning resources is up to date and aligned with changes in curriculum. This would include adding and removing resources from the list.” 2018 September – The Cowichan Valley Board of Education includes policy 16 Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and GEnder Expression in its Board Policy Handbook. 2018 – Since there has been no formal vote taken at the Board level with regard to SOGI 123 as a Learning Resource, it appears the SOGI 123 Learning Resource has been neither approved nor disapproved for use in the Cowichan Valley school district.

* Implementation Motion, from Board meeting minutes

While the Board has not yet considered any motion that references the learning resource known as SOGI 123, it does have a related policy in the Board Policy Handbook, as shown below.

Policy 16 – Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression

Excerpt: The Board recognizes its responsibility to provide a safe, inclusive and welcoming environment for all students and their families, employees and volunteers, including those who identify as or are perceived to be LGBTQ.

The complete one-page policy can be seen here.

Timeline

2016 July 25 – THE BC Human Rights Code is modified with the addition of “gender identity or expression”.

2017 July 1 – Ministry of Education policy delegates approval of Learning Resources to local Boards of Education.
Quoting from the Ministry’s policy on learning resources,
“The Ministry of Education no longer conducts evaluation processes to recommend learning resources. This responsibility now rests with boards. Board policies and procedures should include a process for ensuring the list of recommended learning resources is up to date and aligned with changes in curriculum. This would include adding and removing resources from the list.”

2018 September – The Cowichan Valley Board of Education includes policy 16 Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and GEnder Expression in its Board Policy Handbook.

2018 – Since there has been no formal vote taken at the Board level with regard to SOGI 123 as a Learning Resource, it appears the SOGI 123 Learning Resource has been neither approved nor disapproved for use in the Cowichan Valley school district.

** Classroom Motion

THAT the Cowichan Valley Board of Education directs the Superintendent to continue to promote a respectful educational environment for all students, by removing the SOGI 123 learning resource from classroom instructional time.