A healthy lifestyles presentation at Virden Collegiate Institute on Feb. 15, contained some unexpected material that has brought a storm of unhappy responses. VCI principal Mark Keown and superintendent of Fort la Bosse School Division Barry Pitz have received numerous calls and emails from parents and members of the public over a portion of the material. They’re taking steps to remediate the situation.
Upset parents have posted on Facebook and written to the newspaper. The matter came to broad public attention in an online publication, ‘The Publica’ headlined, ‘CANADA: Boys Reportedly Sent Home With Condoms, Wooden Phalluses, and Gay Pornography From Manitoba School’.
A parent wrote to the Empire-Advance saying that a letter was sent home about the upcoming Manitoba physical education and health curriculum for grades 9/10 and that parents could exempt their child if they did not wish them to receive the sex Ed course.
She indicates the letter came after the fact, but says, “Had we received that letter before the class happened, we would have let our daughter attend because it seemed pretty average as far as topics and things she should learn.”
Material in accordance with Manitoba’s Healthy Schools Curriculum is presented every year to students within Fort La Bosse School Division and this year was no different, except it was.
“The kids were subjected to someone explaining how pronouns are important, that if they are… ready to have sex with someone and they see that person’s private part, they are not to assume that just because they have either a penis or a vagina that they are in fact male or female. And when the kids were doing the work involved in the class, if they said ‘she’ or ‘he’ in their answers they were first scolded and then told to use ‘they’ and ‘them’ not ‘he’ and ‘she’ because that’s wrong.’ They were given a wooden penis to practice putting condoms on and were also instructed on how to touch a penis to arouse excitement,” the mom said.
Presentations to grade 9 classes in the morning were followed by presentations to grade 10 classes in the afternoon. A resource table was set up at noon hour with print material, condom packs and a wooden phallus.
The parent referred to the booklet called, “Who’s Got the Condom?” saying, “Those are the only words it contained. The rest of the 53 pages of this tiny little pocket sized full-colour flip book depicts two men, one older, one younger, getting themselves aroused….” Use of a condom is included; sexual acts and facial expressions of ecstasy are depicted.
The initial letter sent home explained that students would be receiving instruction on Healthy Lifestyle Practices. This includes sensitive topics such as developing relationships, responsible sexual behaviour, contraception, STBBIs (Sexually Transmitted and Blood Borne Infections) and substance use.
The letter said trained professionals - Virden Area Public Health and SERC (Sexual Education Resource Centre) – would present the information, and offered parents the option of having their child opt out of the session.
VCI principal Mark Keown responded to parents with a letter on Feb. 20th where he told them that SERC (Sexuality Education Resource Centre) representatives “took the opportunity to set up an information table at lunch to share extra information for all students, as our Grade 11 and 12 students were not part of the presentations. Unfortunately, it was at this table that the flip book ‘Who’s got the Condom?’ was made available for students to preview or take if they chose to. This book has some very revealing images and I apologize for it being available for students to preview.”
In an interview with the Empire-Advance, Keown brought context and expressed his own concerns. He said the core pieces of those presentations come right out of the Manitoba K-12 health curriculum.
“That’s why we do this, that’s why we deliver these presentations, because it’s part of the Manitoba curriculum.”
He explained that SERC has since been informed that their material would be previewed before future presentations took place.
He said that originally, public health nurses who serve the school and community are the ones who have done those presentations. During the pandemic they became too busy with other duties. “That’s when the SERC staff was added in. They became those experts who came in and did the presentations for our students.”
He went on to say of the presenters, “They’re not necessarily certified teachers …as a teacher, we always try to deliver the factual neutral point and allow kids to have perspectives on that.”
But this year was different. “I think in this scenario, there were some examples throughout the presentations where there was some personal bias, or personal perspectives that was not necessarily in the [curriculum].”
Keown acknowledged his responsibility as school administrator and expressed concern over the presenter’s decision to make that material available in Virden Collegiate.
“I wasn’t aware of that information being made available to our students over the lunch hour. And that’s where the apology letter went out. We should have screened that and been a part of that process, knowing that was information that was going to be made available for our kids.”
The collegiate students were encouraged to connect with student support staff to work through any concerns, alarm or any feelings of discomfort.
“I think we did a good job in sitting down, having a talk with each of the grade levels, just about the day, about the information, about the inappropriate sharing of some of that information… just making sure that the door was open for them to access extra support.”
Parental concern has indicated that the school has betrayed students and families in this matter.
Keown says, “I met with those kids and apologized to them. I’ve obviously met with my parent council and discussed the whole issue with them, making sure that they’re aware and trying to do my best to respond to parental, community concerns.”
He acknowledged that teaching on the use of pronouns was a topic within the presentation.
“Once again, they probably veered off the core curricular expectations. That’s not necessarily in the curriculum.”
He said VCI staff are responsive to students who want a different pronoun than he or she, “to enhance the comfort level for some of those kids, going through some of those changes and challenges…. We don’t necessarily have that expectation for our students.
“That’s probably beyond this presentation… the purpose of this presentation is safety and obviously abstinence as the number one answer. It doesn’t necessarily connect too deeply into sexual identity…The curriculum is to be very factual [from a] health perspective… and how do we respond to that.
“We try to make our building as welcoming as we possibly can. We don’t really care what your sexuality is. We see you as a student in our building …. We want you to be successful.
While he says he’s been vilified by people from other areas, Keown states, “Obviously my concern is for our community, our stakeholders, our people. We want to make sure we’re doing the best we can to answer their questions and, once again, try and get [students]… coming to school every day so that we can take school on, do what we need to do, which is graduate and move on to being an adult.”
Steps taken by school board
Pitz, as Fort la Boss Superintendent of Schools shared information and next steps with respect to the Healthy Schools Curriculum and recent healthy lifestyles presentation hosted by VCI.
“I have very serious concerns with what took place that day during the noon hour in terms of the presentation of the health curriculum.” He said of the Manitoba curriculum, “I’m in support of that, however some of the material that was used on a display table that day is a concern to myself and the school board shares the same concern, as we do with parents.”
The wooden phallus is a condom demonstration aide manufactured by Lifestyles. Asked if the item would be incorporated into future presentations, the superintendent said, “No,” adding that it was “used as an educational model for putting on protection.”
The other materials including the wooden penis were not handed out to students to take home. “There was one item, and it was actually taken from the table without permission by a student. Later returned with an apology. The other materials that were on the table for example, condoms as well as a flip booklet… were not approved and that is where the concern has been raised.”
Pitz outlined actions taken including principal Keown’s letter of apology, discussion with the students and re-organizing the health presentation for all future classes.
“I have instructed all schools to postpone any further presentations by SERC until further notice and a review.
“I’ve instructed my curriculum coordinator to establish an implementation team around this topic, that will involve other stakeholders and this process will begin this spring so that we can have greater transparency … and make sure that there’s participation and representation of our parent councils as well.
“I’ve had very good, positive feedback from the community to know those are the steps that have been taken.”
