Education Minister Dustin Duncan. June 22, 2023 (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)

By CJME News

PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Planned Parenthood suspended from school presentations by Ministry of Education

Jun 23, 2023 | 9:30 AM

A set of what appears to be explicit alphabet cards left in a high school classroom has Planned Parenthood in hot water with some parents, and now with the provincial government as well.

Education Minister Dustin Duncan said Thursday he’s suspending the organization from doing presentations in schools until a review can be done.

It stems from materials left at Lumsden High School after a presentation Monday. According to Duncan, the presentation itself concerned things like sexually transmitted infections (STI) and contraception, but some materials that were left in the classroom included a set of alphabet cards that explicitly described sexual acts and situations.

“The material in question, certainly I believe as minister of education – frankly as a parent – is completely inappropriate to be in a classroom (and) has no part of being in a classroom. And so we want to make sure that that material is not going to be a part of other resources that will be provided to students,” Duncan said.

When asked to explain exactly what was inappropriate, Duncan read some of the cards out to the assembled media.

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“I don’t feel appropriate saying that, but I think it gives you a sense that if I feel uncomfortable saying that to the media — and likely some of that won’t be broadcast because of the nature of it — then I think it pretty much, certainly for me, is an indication it probably doesn’t need to be in the classroom,” he said afterwards.

According to explanatory materials for the cards, they’re intended for gay, bi and queer young people as a resource to facilitate “humorous and frank discussion.”

The cards have tongue-in-cheek and often explicit descriptions but also include reminders about safer sex and warnings about the STI risk associated with the acts.

Duncan said the cards were brought to his attention early Thursday morning by a grandparent of a student and more calls had come into the ministry since then.

The Prairie Valley School Division declined a request for an interview but sent a statement explaining that Planned Parenthood is a resource recommended by the Ministry of Health and was brought in for a presentation to a Grade 9 health class.

The statement confirmed the presentation was aligned with the curriculum but an extra resource that was brought in — the set of cards — wasn’t appropriate for students.

“It was not referred to in the actual presentation but was available at a side table after the presentation. A single copy of this resource was taken by one of the students,” read the statement.

The division said it has asked Planned Parenthood to remove the cards from future school presentations and has followed up with the families of the students who attended the session.

Duncan said Planned Parenthood’s suspension right now doesn’t preclude it from doing presentations in the future, but there’s going to be a review. He said he’s hoping to have more clarity on this by the start of the next school year in the fall.

Duncan said there should be more care taken from people going into classrooms for presentations, and more care on the part of the school around a presentation as well.

“The questions that we do have in terms of what is the vetting process for ensuring that teachers preview all the material that they’re going to use, not only in the delivery of their courses but also if they do bring in outside people and organizations, (and) what the vetting process is for their material as well,” said Duncan.

The Ministry of Education is also going to be reviewing its own sex education materials to ensure they’re age-appropriate.

“I don’t want to just be pointing out some material that I have a problem with. I want to also make sure that what the ministry’s presenting is appropriate as well,” said Duncan.

In addition, the ministry will also be looking at school division policies around if and how they inform parents about when their kids will be taking sex education and what will be taught.

“We’re going to look at what the policies are for school divisions that will provide greater ability for parents to know what’s being delivered in the classroom,” said Duncan.

Some divisions already let parents know but others don’t and Duncan said ministry officials will be asking the question of whether there needs to be consistency across school divisions.