January 26, 2016

The WRSD Policy Committee is meeting on February 3, 2016 to create a first draft for it's Welcoming, Caring, Respectful & Safe Learning Environment policy. This draft policy will then be sent to our schools and school councils so that we can get valuable feedback from staff and parents. We ask that all feedback be returned to WRSD by March 5, 2016. After receiving this feedback, the Policy Committee will meet again to make final revisions. They will then present the updated policy for approval to the Board on March 15, 2016 at the regularly scheduled board meeting. If you would like more information on the school councils please contact the school of interest directly. 

January 21, 2016

On Tuesday, January 19, 2016 the WRSD Board of Trustees passed a motion to develop a policy addressing Sections 45.1 and 16.1 of the School Act as mandated by the Minister of Education. Please note these sections of the School Act do not single out any one community. They address all areas of potential discrimination as listed in the Alberta Human Rights Act including race, age, ancestry, place of origin, colour, religious beliefs, gender, gender identity, gender expression, physical or mental disability, marital status, family status, socioeconomic status and sexual orientation. This means our policy needs to ensure that ALL students and staff in WRSD are provided a welcoming, caring, respectful and safe learning environment.

It is also important to acknowledge that the LGBTQ community has historically  not been as respected and welcomed as should be.  As such it is good that Alberta Education has asked School Divisions to be especially aware of this particular group. However this need not be at the expense or neglect of any other group listed in the Alberta Human Rights Act.

It is important to note that the recently published guidelines put out by Alberta Education are guidelines. While they do present some useful suggestions on how schools can become more inclusive regarding the LGBTQ community, they are neither exhaustive nor mandated. The January 14 edition of the Edmonton Journal quoted Minister Eggen about the guidelines as saying, "I don't want to say this is a legal document." While these guidelines are not binding, some of them may be helpful to WRSD in creating our policy and procedures. In addition, the Division will work with our school communities to develop procedures that make sense for our context and are successful in making ALL students and staff feel welcome and respected in our schools.

Lastly, we fear  people are worried that extreme examples will become the norm. We do not see this happening in WRSD. For example, there won't suddenly be a bunch of boys in the girls washroom at will (or vice versa). Working with individual students and parents WRSD will continue to ensure ALL students feel welcome and respected in terms of bathroom use, lockerroom use, etc. We do not pretend to minimize the complexities involved in all of this. We will need to be both creative and sensitive in handling these issues. We also believe that each individual circumstance may need a slightly different solution, depending on the context.  Ultimately, our mandate is to make sure all of our students feel safe and respected. Prior to the release of these guidelines, WRSD has already been successfully dealing with these kinds of issues in some of our schools. However there is always room for improvement and WRSD is taking this very seriously.

The Board's Policy Committee is meeting on February 3 to write the first draft of our policy. Once the policy is written, further administrative procedures will need to be created that will assist our schools in the application of the policy. We will be consulting with other school divisions during this process. Please be assured that our goal is to ensure all of our students feel welcome, cared for, respected and safe in each of our schools.