School Policies Tag

28 Jun 2018 Civil Disobedience and Courageous Leadership by Alberta Schools

by Mark Penninga Many of us are ready to disengage for the summer, leaving behind the stress of our regular lives. But before doing so, please take a moment to reflect on yesterday’s Alberta court ruling against the application for an injunction on Bill 24. This may sound like Greek, and largely irrelevant to you. But it isn’t. For starters, have a look just at page 1 of the decision. Look at the names of the schools listed in the court challenge. Do any of them look familiar to you? This may be the...

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23 May 2018 What did Jason Kenney really say?

By Lighthouse News Some social conservatives in Alberta are expressing disappointment at what they perceive to be United Conservative Party (UCP) Leader Jason Kenney’s position on Gay Straight Alliances and the question of parental notification. The party held its founding AGM and policy convention in Red Deer in early May, and ever since then, there has been considerable controversy over Kenney’s statements with regard to a particular policy resolution that was passed there. Resolution 30, which passed with the support of 57 percent of the delegates, called on the government to reinstate parental...

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23 May 2018 Who is funding SOGI?

By Lighthouse News Martin Tampier A Quebec father has discovered that at least two of Canada’s big banks are funding the so-called “SOGI” movement, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The term “SOGI” stands for “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”, and describes a new trend in public school curriculum - particularly in BC - which promotes the notion of gender fluidity in the school curriculum. The issue has caused considerable controversy on the west coast, where parent groups are starting to mobilize for this fall's public school board elections to...

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15 Dec 2017 What to Wear to a Worm Wedding: Highlights from BC’s SOGI Curriculum

By Tabitha Ewert, Articling Student The schools back in my hometown of Langley, BC, have a re-designed “SOGI” curriculum. For those unfamiliar with the term, SOGI is an acronym for “sexual orientation and gender identity”. While only announced this year, this curriculum has been years in the making. It started out as an anti-bullying campaign, but it teaches an unhealthy view of sexuality and gender. I want to explain and comment on the new curriculum, but before I do that I need to state four premises: Four Premises Education is not neutral. As the Ontario...

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22 Nov 2017 Protect them All: a Christian case for eliminating lists of special identity groups in school policies

Schools, whether private or public, should adopt a zero-tolerance approach to bullying and harassment. Such policies are aimed at protecting each and every student in the school. Provincial education ministries often recommend – or in some cases require – long lists of identifying characteristics to be included in these policies such as race, citizenship, disability, creed, sex, and even the modern concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity. Christian schools, however, should not include these lists in their policies. While we agree that schools need to protect all students (including those who...

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17 Oct 2017 Alberta government threatens to release private school anti-bullying policies

Ed Hoogerdyk, Principal, Tyndale Christian School The Alberta government is poised to release a list of anti-bullying policies submitted by private and Christian schools last year in response to Bill 10. The umbrella group representing those schools is opposing that release. Ed Hoogerdyk is the principal of Tyndale Christian School in Calgary and he says the Freedom of Information request for the policies is premature, because more than a year after the policies were submitted to the Alberta Ministry of Education, there has been no response as to whether any of...

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03 Oct 2017 David Eggen at it again: more challenges for Alberta Christian Schools

Last week Education Minister David Eggen once again came out swinging against Albertan parents and Christian schools, promising that the provincial government will be introducing new legislation that will force all Alberta schools that receive public money to have a code of conduct in place that singles out protection for students on the basis of gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. The legislation will also require school policies to make it clear that students have a “right” to establish gay-straight alliance clubs and would also make it illegal for...

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26 Sep 2017 Bullying

ARPA is out with a new policy report. This one is entitled "Protect Them All", and it deals with anti-bullying policies in schools. Law and Policy Director André Schutten says a lot of provinces have been imposing on all schools - including independent Christian schools - an idea or a philosophy of bullying and student protection that's "fundamentally unjust, and informed by unChristian ideology." As a counter to that, Schutten says ARPA's report acknowledges that bullying is sinful and intolerable, but that there is a distinctly Christian approach to dealing...

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19 Sep 2017 Parental Rights

Theresa Ng The Edmonton Public School Board has backed off a motion that would have forbidden staff from disclosing to anyone - including parents - the names of children who chose to participate in Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs. Theresa Ng, who blogs at Informed Albertans, says the motion pushed to implement the policy right across the province. Ng pointed out, “If (the) Edmonton Public (School Board) had passed this kind of a motion, then…the Minister of Education could say ‘Oh, well. We are being asked to do this.’ But I think it’s by...

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16 Mar 2016 Alberta Tour 2016

In recent months the Alberta government announced that it is requiring all schools in the province to change their policies to promote a secular understanding of transgenderism and LGBT rights. What can Christian parents and communities do to stand up for parental authority and fundamental freedoms? Join ARPA Canada on our spring tour through Alberta this April. ARPA's Executive Director, Mark Penninga and Director of Law & Policy, André Schutten will explain the current challenge, while also speaking directly to a Christian perspective on transgenderism and civil disoedience. Event details are below, and a printable version of the poster can be found at the bottom of this article.
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