Concerned parents and members of the community took a stand against controversial “learning resources” during a Chilliwack school board meeting on Tuesday, February 7, 2023.
The Chilliwack School board district 33 (SD33) chair repeatedly interrupted citizens on their time to speak, blatantly censoring some and proceeded with shutting down board debates on the concerns raised by the citizens.
Before the board meeting and debates of the school districts learning resources policy began, some of the public including former trustee Darrell Furgason pushed forward questions and weighed in with their opinions some learning resources that may be sexually explicit or inappropriate for children among other things.
One citizen raised concerns about overnight field trips asking if girls will be forced to share the girls sleeping dorms with boys who identify as girls.
“I know you can hear me hear me” said one grandmother after Willow Reichelt turned off her mic.
Reichelt replied she could hear her but turned her mic off attempting to censor the grandmother from public record claiming the grandmother was “potentially” saying something “discriminatory”
“I’m not going to let you speak anymore,” said Reichelt to one grandmother.
The first thing the next grandmother focused on was the section about the “learning resources” and the criteria of the material.
“The primary objective of learning resources is to support, enrich and help implement the
educational programs of the school.” a copy of the policy objective shows in the meeting minutes.
She agreed the objective mission statement but found it curious the top priorities of Policy 380 “Learning Resources” is all about ideology and didn’t align with academics at all.
Here is a quick look at it.
- Learning Resources selected fulfill the following social consideration principles:
a. Promotes diversity, appropriately representing the status areas of the BC Human Rights Code: race, colour, ancestry, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, and disability
b. Incorporates diverse racial backgrounds and lived experiences, demonstrates equity, and reflects Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) voices
c. Promotes respect for and understanding of inclusion and diversity in Canadian society
d. Provides appropriate context for complex issues and demonstrates an awareness of personal bias
e. Emphasizes opportunities for critical thinking
f. Ensures resources are current and do not contain discriminatory or stereotypical content, acknowledging that some resources may be used to provide historical context and critical thinking regarding changes in societal norms.
She also raised concern about the school pushing parents out of their children’s education and “excluding parental input” from decision making.
A phrase frequently used throughout the policy is “appropriate context” and she asked “appropriate according to whom?”, because what one person says is appropriate another person may not.
Another phrase pointed out is “Professional judgment” which is not defined.
“Teacher-Librarians and other teachers will use professional judgment – in selecting content for curriculum learning resources and recreational reading” the policy reads.
“that leaves me questioning. Okay, professional as opposed to what? Education is not a business. Education is a collaboration between Community Educators, board, parents”
She ran out of talk time half way through the learning resource policy.
For a long while Dr. Fergason has pushed back against some of the learning and reading materials in the Chilliwack school libraries arguing they fall under the definition of definition of child pornography.
When Fergason began to read the Criminal Code of Canada “there are strict definitions of times it wasn’t considered child pornography”, Reichelt quickly tried to censor him by turning off his mic and claim he is being “defamatory”.
“Dr. Fergason, Ya, so um. We’re not doing this. There is no illegal material in our schools that’s highly defamatory” Willow Reichelt shouted, in which Fergason opposed the defamatory claim.
You could still hear Fergason in the background “What is the legal standing that’s all I ask of the superintendent of the school district. Now if you don’t know if you can’t say we don’t care does the superintendent have understand the legal status that’s all it is in regards to materials.”
He is interrupted by Reichelt “None of what you’re saying is on the public record because I’ve turned off your mic just so you know” she said then shouted “Have a seat Dr Ferguson”.
The meeting was adjourned briefly.
Later on when the board debate started in regards to the “learning resources” Chilliwack in where Reichelt would let other Trudee’s speak without interrupting if she agreed with them and censored anyone that didn’t just blindly nod their heads yes and agree with her.
School Trustee Heather Maahs brought up the concerns she just heard from the citizens that spoke prior to the debate.
Maahs accurately pointed out that some of the books are not on approved resources on the FER or ERAC catalogues.
She went on to explain how she has walked a parent through the process of challenging learning resources and the process is intense and difficult for parents to navigate.
“Is there a line we won’t cross? Do we have a line?” Maahs asked. She then raised a point citizens were asking about just before this debate saying there is no mention of the Criminal Code of Canada, Willow Reichelt quickly interrupted Maahs claiming “there is no material in our classrooms”. Maahs fires back “Point of privilege chair would you let me finish my thought”
Willow Reichelt pipes up again refusing to debate the topic while Maahs tries to get the answers for the concerned citizens at the beginning of the meeting.
“No i will not. I am going to interrupt you and tell you there is no (sic) there is no. There are no materials in our schools that break the criminal code and that are illegal”
Chilliwack School Board Chair Willow Reichelt blatantly censored Maahs by turning off her mic as soon as Maahs began to read the Criminal Code of Canada.
A few things in the library commons policy that caught the eyes of some parents are as followed.
“The principles of freedom of to read/listen/view must be protected for students. TLs (teacher librarians) will support reading choice for students. Families who wish students not to read certain topics can have those discussions at home, but it is not the role of the TL to censor choices at the circulation desk.”
Also, “No parent/guardian/caregiver or groups of parents/guardians/caregivers has the right to determine reading, viewing or listening materials for students other than their own.”
Trustee Richard Procee directly asked if parents had any say if sexually explicit material is available to their children and asked if the phrase “offensive material” for challenging reading materials also included sexually explicit material. The answer he was given is that policy 380 has a process for parents to challenge reading materials through a ‘reconsideration committee.’
Trustee Maahs asked the board to vote against the policy because the challenge process is to onerous for parents to negotiate.
The motion to implement Policy 380 Learning Recourses passed. Yay (5) and Nay (2)
Yay (5) -Willow Reichelt, Carin Bondar, Margaret Reid, David Swankey, Teri Westerby
Nay (2) – Heather Maahs, Richard Procee
“I’m not going to let you imply there are books in our library promoting incest” said Chair Willow Reichelt
After the meeting and what was supposed to be a debate on the learning resources which turned out to be censorship town, another parent took to the podium to speak to the board. She expressed concern that one of the books is promoting sexual abuse and incest.
“I’m not going to let you imply there are books in our library promoting incest” said Chair Willow Reichelt
