11) VSB CENSURES LYING TRUSTEES
PV Vancouver Bureau
In a rare
development, two right-wing school trustees who cooperated with homophobic
groups during last November's civic election were held to account at the Jan.
16 meeting of the
Vision
Vancouver trustees supported a two-part motion by COPE trustee Alan Wong, to
reaffirm the Board's standing anti-homophobia policy, and to censure NPA
trustees Ken Denike and Sophia Woo for
misrepresenting the Board's policies.
This was the
Board's first meeting since the discovery of YouTube videos showing Denike and Woo speaking to groups which strongly oppose
measures to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and
questioning youth (and school employees) from the impact of bigotry. The two NPAers told their audiences that the VSB has no special
policy on LGBTQ issues, but that there was a "threat" along these
lines posed by queer activists like Vision Vancouver's Ryan Clayton and COPE
trustee Jane Bouey. In fact, the Board's
groundbreaking LGBTQ policy was adopted in 2004, and drafted largely by Bouey, who is a frequent target of right-wing attacks.
Denike and Woo have given contradictory explanations for
their claims on the videos. But they were clearly trying to ride a wave of fear
spread last year in neighbouring
However, Denike was re-elected in
Normally
witnessed by a handful of representatives from partner groups, this meeting was
packed. Among the defenders of the Board's current policy were dozens of
parents, students, teachers, and community activists. Many braved a deafening
barrage of vicious insults from about 20 opponents as they rose to speak to the
issue, despite efforts by VSB chair Patti Bacchus to encourage a respectful
discussion.
Clayton was
one of the most powerful speakers, calling on Denike
and Woo to apologize to people impacted by their actions - including the
conservative Christians to whom they lied about the VSB's
policies. A secondary student won wild applause when she urged the NPA trustees
to resign. Former NPA trustee Eleanor Gregory informed the crowd that early in
the 2005-08 term, she had urged Denike
to help make sure that the anti-homophobia policy was not ditched by a
newly-elected NPA majority. (Gregory later broke ranks with the NPA over
several issues.)
Opponents of
the Board made a series of bizarre claims, stating that sex education is a
tactic to raise government revenues from the sale of condoms, or that those who
object to anti-homophobia policies will be imprisoned.
These forces
are led by the spokesperson for a group called "Culture Guard", Kari
Simpson, who is connected with anti-choice, anti-Jewish and even fascist
elements. Simpson even accuses the "Out in Schools" program, which
has done effective anti-homophobia education for many years, of "inviting
kids to porn parties."
All of this
could be dismissed as the ravings of a handful, since trustees and parent
groups have been deluged with messages demanding to protect the anti-homophobia
policy, but virtually none asking for its removal.
But Simpson
and her backers are pushing the demand for "parent rights" to remove
children from any classroom discussion of LGBT relationships or sexuality.
Cloaked in rhetoric about "free speech" and "protecting cultural
values," this tactic aims to eliminate the secular and science-based
content of public education, and to smash the unions of teachers and other
school employees.
The Jan. 16
motion adopted by COPE's Alan Wong and the Vision
majority on the VSB is a powerful statement on defending equality in
(The above
article is from the February 1-14, 2012, issue of People's