Re: CTA Press Release October 2
Published in the Chilliwack Progress on October 10
To the Chilliwack Teachers’ Association,
I am writing regarding your public endorsement of candidates for the upcoming election. Your endorsements do NOT speak for all teachers and I am repulsed by your deliberately misleading & biased information. This is a gross misuse of parental trust from the CTA. ALL of the candidates running have a platform of making school a safe & inclusive environment. As a parent, I am very concerned that the CTA leadership & their left-wing endorsed candidates have redefined “inclusive” & “diverse” to mean “affirming” & “conforming.” True inclusion would not encourage students to keep secrets from their parents. True diversity would never push a student to conform to beliefs that conflict with their faith.
The “values enshrined in the British Columbia Human Rights Code” you mention are related to discrimination, not education. If it was about education, schools would need to teach the nuances of all aspects of the code including race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, and physical or mental disabilities. A Trustee concerned about unscientific & ever-evolving gender fluid teaching in the classroom is not the same as their rejection of students experiencing varied gender identities. I am horrified that the CTA would try to imply such a thing to the public. If there are barriers to teaching kindness without affirmation and conformity, then teachers are in significant need of retraining. What is “vital” in terms of “diversity” is lost with your biased catering to a special interest group. It is wise for Trustees to take a logical (not an emotional, bandwagon) approach to reviewing the SOGI 123 policies. Policies 3, 4, 6 & 9 allow self-id without parental knowledge or an opportunity for a teacher’s intervention to access sex-segregated spaces & sports. This comes at the direct expense of female athletes, ethnic minorities who culturally value modesty, children with economic barriers, those experiencing anxiety disorders and sexual abuse survivors, to name a few. While this is a win for activists, it is a huge loss to many other vulnerable children in your district. The trustees that you criticize and indirectly attack actually seem to realize what is at stake here.
Your attempt to sway democracy with a press release implying that it is actual teachers (not the association) who put it forward is shameful. It is a play on the emotions of families who trust teachers but may have conflicting political beliefs. This is a huge over-reach and the CTA has lost my confidence and support.
Jen Chiasson
Chilliwack, BC
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