In short, three books that did not fall under the provincial reading list were withdrawn by the school board on the objection of parents. The Supreme Court upheld the right of two teachers to use the books in their class room.
It seems to me that the agenda of teachers superceded the agenda of parents. The fact that the supreme court saw fit to tell parents what is age appropriate for their children is truly disturbing to me. But then, I’m not sure how entrenched are parental rights are.
That’s not how I understand the decision, from a cursory review of the headnote. The opening summary reads:
The three bolded portions seem to summarise the Court’s position.
First, the provincial Legislature, composed of representatives elected from across the Province, has set out the general principles of the curriculum for all public schools. School boards, a subordinate government agency, must follow the law enacted by the Legislature. Under that law, some materials are mandatory, others are within the discretion of the Board. The books in question were not on the provincial list, and the question was whether the board should allow them as supplementary materials. The Board had some discretion in deciding that question, but “discretion” doesn’t mean “whatever we want to do.” The discretion must be exercised in relation to the general framework of the curriculum established by the Legislature. The Court concluded that the Board did not properly take into account the general principles of the curriculum set out in the statute.
Second, the School Act states that public schools are to be non-sectarian. It seems very clear that the Board refused to allow the books to be used because of the sectarian concerns of some parents, rather than trying to take into account the positions of all parents who send children to the schools. Doing that violated the principles set out by the Legislature itself in the School Act.
Third, the Court did not substitute its decision for that of the Board. It set aside the Board’s decision because the Board did not follow the statutory provisions governing its discretion, and then remanded the matter to the Board to decide, in light of the legal principles set out in the statutes.
So, this doesn’t sound like a court substituting its views for elected officials. Rather, it’s a court telling a subordinate elected body that it has not complied with the laws enacted by the primary legislative body, the provincial Legislature.
I’d like to see the list of other books. I’m curious if other minorities (like the Hindus and Muslims mentioned in the article) are as represented as gays, since there are probably more Hindu parents than there are same sex parents.
I don’t see that school boards have any business micro-managing what teachers have in their classrooms. If the parents don’t want their kids reading those books, don’t let them read those books!
School board members don’t have to be trained, certified, or in a continual process of furthering their educations; teachers do have to be all of the above and more. School boards already interefere too much. Censorship is just one of those areas where I feel that a school board will almost always be wrong to interfere.
Bucky, I’m glad that if we were to have a teacher making all 1st graders reading Mein Kampf you wouldn’t have a problem with that. Kudos to you.
It’s not “micro-managing” or any other buzz word you want to attach to it, it’s making sure that the teachers follow certain standards.
I doubt if first graders could read Mein Kampf, so the danger seems slight.
So what are the standards? Does the school board approve of every book formally tuaght in class? Of all books in the school library? Of all books in each classroom’s individual library?
Would you require that each and every school board member read each and every book before they decide if the book should remain or not? If they don’t read them, how will they decide?
Seriously, I’m asking here. If the teacher has read the book–sometimes an “if,” I know–then they should have some idea of the book’s content. Would you require that the school board also reads before deciding? Would you require that parents (or others) who want a book banned read it all the way through before banning? If not, why not and what should be the process?
These are the same people who would have banned books with inter-racial relationships back in the 50’s and 60’s…to “protect” the children from the concept of mixed races loving each other.
The court did make sure that teachers follow certain standards. It made sure they followed the standards set out in the School Act – those would be those “broad principles of tolerance and non-sectarianism.” It was the school board that failed to live up to the standard.
I’ve actually read one of the books on the list, Belinda’s Bouquet. It’s the tamest thing I’ve ever seen. A little girl named Belinda gets made fun of for her weight by a bus driver on the way home from school. Her friend Daniel takes her to his house, where she meets Daniel’s mother who gives her a lecture on the beauty of vdiversity through a metaphor of a garden of many flowers. Then Daniel’s other mother comes in with a bouquet. The words lesbian or homosexual are never mentioned. Daniel just happens to have two mothers.
Believe it or not, this book was also one of the ones that Little Sisters Bookstore had ordered, and that Canada Customs stopped at the border as obscene. It shocking how much government time and money has been spent trying to keep the most innocent book in the world from reaching children.