Ontario Catholic Student Trustees release recommendations on equity and inclusion

Our news & views

January 27, 2012

Catholic students come out against all forms of discrimination, harassment and bullying.

The Catholic Board Council of the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association has released a report and a number of recommendations giving a Catholic student perspective on the Ministry of Education’s Equity and Inclusion Policy.

While the report does not mention Gay Straight Alliances specifically (unlike the Ministry anti-bullying policy), it does state that “Every student has the right to feel safe, supported, and treated fairly in their schools and school communities.” The report and recommendations also note that there are very specific forms of discrimination and bullying which can, at times, be based on sexual orientation.

The students are somewhat critical of a report developed for the Catholic school boards on the equity and inclusion policy because the school board report “does not name any specific forms of discrimination and grounds of harassment.” The students go on to say that, “without defining prohibited grounds of discrimination in the policy, discretion is left to the administration of each school to define it. We believe that it would send a much stronger message to put the prohibited grounds of discrimination in the policy itself.”

Among the many recommendations:

  • Boards include students, Student Parliaments, Student Senators, and Student Trustees in the discussion and implementation of the [equity and inclusion] policy.
  • Boards put initiatives in place for students to develop and practice their leadership skills and learn how they can use them to help create and maintain equitable and inclusive school environments.
  • Boards make diverse mentors available to staff and student leaders at all times to assist them in their fight for equity.
  • Boards provide similar leadership training to trustees, directors, senior staff, teachers, and admin to ensure continuity and proper implementation for all policies and programs targeted at creating inclusive school environments.
  • Boards continue to mandate that schools create a safe and comfortable environment for non-Catholic beliefs within their schools.
  • Boards encourage equity groups in their schools to bring awareness to different issues and situations that their peers face.
  • Boards hold a Professional Development day on the topic of zero-tolerance for all types of discrimination and harassment and dealing with particular situations.
  • Schools hold “safe-space” student forums to discuss areas of discrimination and to generate ideas to combat the barriers created by discrimination in their own specific school communities.
  • Schools implement anti-bullying groups which specifically target areas of bullying which are prominent in their schools.

People For Education Viewpoint:

While the students’ report does not specifically mention harassment of and discrimination against LGBTQ students, the recommendations are a step in the right direction. They called the report “All God’s Children,” by which one can construe that all  young people – gay, straight, Catholic, bisexual, non-Catholic, transsexual,  rich or poor, white or brown – all young people are, by the students’ estimation,  God’s children and must be welcomed and protected in their schools.