Action4Canada - February 11, 2023


PART 1： Call to Action： School Board Trustees Must be Held Accountable


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

149.90007

Word Count

1,950

Sentence Count

5

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary

In this episode, we discuss the Board of Trustees of the Fraser Valley School District No. 1 School Board, which is comprised of the Superintendent, School Board Trustees, School Superintendents, and School District Trustees.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 all right so I'm just gonna wait till everything's off the screen there so we are moving on to public
00:00:23.620 participation now this portion of the agenda is open for public participation for all this is
00:00:30.520 questions or comments concerning the agenda so only questions or comments concerning agenda items
00:00:36.060 will be accepted this question participation period is roughly is about 15 minutes and we try
00:00:43.700 to keep each speaker to two minutes so just keep that in mind there's a lot of people here tonight
00:00:47.980 so the shorter the better and yeah so come to that when you come to the mic you'll be asked to say
00:00:55.180 your name and your connection to the district so good evening through the chair to the superintendents
00:01:06.400 trustees educators parents and caregivers my name is Patricia and I'm here today as a parent and
00:01:13.300 educator in our school system I've worked as a youth care worker and an education assistant in
00:01:19.480 the Fraser Valley for over 20 years I'm concerned about the mental health of my students I've advocated
00:01:24.880 for the most vulnerable in our schools and society I have been and I am their frontline support person
00:01:30.700 my students have varying degrees of issues whether it be neurodivergent students students on various
00:01:36.580 spectrums students within the LGBTQI plus community youth struggling with trauma anxiety depression as
00:01:44.020 well as marginalized are just a few of the many vulnerable students I work with it's quite extensive
00:01:50.800 I am concerned regarding some books and resources that our children are being exposed to that are
00:01:58.740 potentially victim re-victimizing youth and children especially our students who have experienced sexual
00:02:04.580 trauma books I was reading and exposed to throughout my university education which were intended for
00:02:10.320 adults are now in many of our elementary middle and high schools books written for 18 plus should
00:02:15.800 remain in university college and public libraries I'm not here to suggest that any kind of books be taken
00:02:22.040 or banned or anything like that I'm just here as a concerned youth care worker who sees a lot of this is explicit
00:02:30.140 in nature and are triggering some of our children and youth and should and they should not be exposed
00:02:37.380 to our children or youth especially children not mentally and emotionally capable of the content
00:02:42.500 are we not here to protect our young people I'm concerned that they can further be damaged
00:02:48.860 and are all to our already vulnerable children and youth how are the policies going to address this
00:02:54.940 and make sure that our most vulnerable aren't exposed to trauma-inducing material and that they are
00:03:00.920 aligned with our criminal codes in Canada regarding sexual content regarding minors thank you very much
00:03:06.460 okay thank you um so press your button oh thanks sorry thank you so the trustees you can keep those
00:03:14.960 comments in mind when we're debating the learning resources policy that one okay um hi I'm a grandmother that
00:03:22.240 has 10 grandchildren in this school district um I have two things that are on my mind here because
00:03:29.820 you just state your name for the record Teresa Gebink thanks uh so I'll just go ahead and jump right in
00:03:35.320 um one of them is a safety policy I don't know if there is such a thing for overnight trips
00:03:40.380 my first concern is regarding an overnight field trip coming up in which there are students that identify
00:03:46.220 as the opposite sex attending just to interrupt that's not on the agenda we're speaking about items that
00:03:50.700 are on the agenda is it not a policy I thought you were rewriting all the policies oh the agenda was
00:03:59.600 posted online so we're speaking about items around this agenda so okay um one of them what about uh for
00:04:06.340 violence and bullying in the schools is that something I can speak on on this agenda okay so
00:04:12.280 basically anything I wanted to say today is not when can I can email the trustees at any point I have
00:04:21.380 emailed you and you responded but I didn't get the answers that I was hoping for well if you have
00:04:27.400 questions because there is a transgender child going on this field trip but where is this child going to
00:04:33.240 speak I know you can hear me I can hear you but it's not getting broadcast because you're saying
00:04:37.640 stuff that's potentially discriminatory so I'm not going to let you speak anymore you can please take
00:04:41.540 a seat those items are not on the agenda thank you okay okay all right I'm Tanya Gaw and this is
00:04:47.700 regarding the learning resources I'm just wondering there's been a lot of controversy of course and a lot of
00:04:53.200 concerned parents coming forth who aren't getting answers to their questions and I know the board through
00:04:58.380 their association the trustees have been told that they are they've been told under section 94-1 that they're
00:05:04.660 indemnified of the concerns regarding the criminal aspect of this but if you go to section 94-2-A and
00:05:13.640 section 4 it's very very clear that the board can be held liable and so there's a lot of concerns you're
00:05:20.560 all need to comply with the criminal code and as I said there's a lot of concerns about these materials
00:05:28.220 being pornographic it's been confirmed this is not only in Canada but around the world and the board
00:05:33.900 has an absolute duty to protect the hearts and minds of our children so my question is regarding the
00:05:40.340 learning resources have you considered the indemnification of you each personally have a
00:05:45.980 duty to uphold the criminal code and according to the teachers act section 94-2-A and 4 thank you
00:05:54.760 thank you go ahead press your button my name is Dr. Darrell Ferguson good to see you all I have a
00:06:08.240 question through the chair to the superintendent if I may and I would like to read first of all well my
00:06:18.040 question is gonna be this is a superintendent aware of the sexually explicit books in school district 33
00:06:22.360 history do you know their content and is school district 33 within their legal right to provide
00:06:28.800 these materials so my question is a legal question what legal grounds is that school district 33 stand
00:06:35.720 on in regards to books with explicit sexual material this is not about the sexual preferences of any
00:06:42.000 trustee on this board because there seems to be a lot of diversity so we celebrate diversity but this is not
00:06:47.840 about trustees this is about legality I just want to read briefly yes it is it's about learning resources
00:06:56.840 thank you very much okay and my question is to the superintendent what legal stance has the superintendent
00:07:07.280 taken in regards to the criminal code let me just briefly read there are strict definition times it
00:07:12.760 was considered child pornography court so I'm turning off your mic Dr. Ferguson yeah we're not doing
00:07:20.740 this there's no illegal material in our schools that's highly defamatory no I'm not gonna let you
00:07:25.420 sorry too bad it's not true there is no illegal material in our schools it is not a thing that is
00:07:34.020 happening so you can have a seat now thank you can come up thank you full question and I didn't ask you
00:07:43.080 specifically for a reason because I knew your answer so I'm asking the super does the district
00:07:47.940 is not sharing this meeting this is the meeting of the board and I've told you to sit down thank you
00:07:51.840 people can either obey the rules of order of this meeting or you'll be asked to leave
00:08:09.300 what is the legal standing that's all I ask of the superintendent of the school district now if you
00:08:17.880 don't know it you can't say we don't care does the superintendent have understand the legal standing
00:08:22.320 that's all it is in regards to materials none of what you're saying is on the public record because
00:08:27.540 I've turned off your mic just so you know have a seat Dr. Ferguson
00:08:31.320 can you please ask Dr. Ferguson to leave if you will not sit down I will not leave and I just want to finish my
00:08:41.720 this meeting is adjourned for temporarily thank you
00:08:45.220 I just wanted to make a statement what you were just saying about not doing criminal record checks on drag queens
00:08:57.600 that's not on the agenda thank you
00:08:59.540 this is not on the agenda drag queens are not on the agenda not on the agenda so like you have a question about something on the
00:09:09.540 agenda I can't I'll give it about the learning resources you have to press your button
00:09:14.360 this has put out some very compelling information about the sexual abuse of children which I think should be all of our
00:09:24.480 concern at any time directly related to this and it's becoming a very
00:09:29.520 very well known so you as a board have to protect our children and consider you know something is moving forward such as the
00:09:37.520 learning resource so G123 was presented in 2016 12 pilot schools in 2017 they put it into all schools
00:09:45.520 no parents were involved in this decision or psychologists to determine the long-term
00:09:50.520 effects now what we're finding G123 is not on the agenda either it's a learning resource that's not anything to do with our
00:09:56.520 learning resources policy though it isn't anything to do with our learning resources policy
00:10:00.520 we've passed the learning resources policy as presented bringing up this particular
00:10:12.520 learning resources is not a thing we're going to do right now if you want to challenge a
00:10:16.520 learning resource you can go to the policy you can figure out how to do that thank you
00:10:28.520 you're not on the mic I've told you thank you so you can go sit down now thank you thank you
00:10:36.520 so I just want to note that the books that I mentioned and many of the other books I searched them on the fer and the
00:10:54.520 erac site and they are not approved resources there they're not every search I did came up this there this book was not found so those books that are controversial
00:11:04.520 those books that are controversial are not preferred books by this group either
00:11:10.520 I also want to mention that the whole challenging process I walked with a parent
00:11:15.520 in the last term through the whole process when this parent challenged a resource and it was a very onerous long process
00:11:25.520 and it is difficult for parents to negotiate that but right now I want to ask the question
00:11:33.520 so is there a line that we won't cross do we have a line there's no mention there's no mention of the criminal code of Canada which we have heard from parents who got up to the
00:11:50.520 I'm just going to interrupt you though there's no material in our classrooms
00:11:55.520 point of privilege chair would you let me finish my
00:11:57.520 no I'm not because I'm going to interrupt you and tell you that there is no there's no there are no materials in our schools that break the criminal code and that are illegal
00:12:07.520 point of privilege
00:12:08.520 you're calling point of privilege I'm the chair I'm denying your privilege
00:12:11.520 well if you would like to let me continue I would appreciate that actually so are you going to stop saying that there's stuff that's so I'm going to read the criminal code to you and then you can just
00:12:23.520 I've cut your mic so does anybody else wish to speak to this motion so you're not going to let me read
00:12:29.520 no I'm not
00:12:32.520 so does anyone else like to speak
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