{"id":7131,"date":"2022-01-21T22:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T03:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=7131"},"modified":"2022-01-21T22:33:42","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T03:33:42","slug":"no-dissent-is-allowed-school-board-bars-teacher-from-raising-concerns-over-transgender-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=7131","title":{"rendered":"‘No dissent is allowed’: School board bars teacher from raising concerns over transgender books"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

‘No dissent is allowed’: School board bars teacher from raising concerns over transgender books<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘I am not a transphobic person. It\u2019s crazy that just because you ask a question, the first thing people do is call you that’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Blackwell<\/a>, NATIONAL POST<\/u><\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jan 21, 2022  \u2022 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"CarolynCarolyn Burjoski, bottom row left, was ejected from this Waterloo Region District School Board virtual meeting for expressing concerns over content in some board-approved school library books. Photo by Screen grab<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Ontario school board is facing charges of censorship this week after shutting down a teacher\u2019s presentation to the group, saying her comments about books on transgender issues violated the province\u2019s human rights code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carolyn Burjoski was discussing publications she said are available in the libraries of Kindergarten to grade six schools. She had begun to argue the books made it seem too simple and \u201ccool\u201d to medically transition to another gender when her presentation was cut short by the Waterloo Region District School Board\u2019s chair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott Piatkowski ruled she could not continue and the board eventually voted 5-4 to back up his decision. The fallout has continued since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though controversial and opposed by most transgender advocates, concerns have been voiced before<\/a> \u2014 including by leading figures in the movement itself \u2014 that gender-dysphoric young people are sometimes pushed too aggressively into medical transition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piatkowski later told a local CTV station<\/a> , however, that Burjoski\u2019s comments were actually transphobic and \u201cquestioned the right to exist\u201d of trans people. Meanwhile, the organization took down its recording of the meeting \u2014 a regular, public session of elected officials \u2014 and had YouTube remove another copy of the video for alleged copyright infringement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the teacher was given what she calls a \u201cstay-at-home order\u201d and told not to communicate with colleagues or students, though she\u2019s still being paid and is slated to retire soon. On Thursday, she says her union rep informed her the board had appointed an outside investigator to examine her actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do need to have a conversation about the intersection of biology and gender<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her first interview on the affair, Burjoski said she was \u201cflabbergasted\u201d by what happened at the meeting and Piatkowski\u2019s remarks afterward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cI am not a transphobic person. It\u2019s crazy that just because you ask a question, the first thing people do is call you that,\u201d she said. \u201cWe do need to have a conversation about the intersection of biology and gender. We\u2019re not having those conversations in our culture because, look what happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the order to stay away from school was likely meant to make an example of her: \u201cThe message is clear: no dissent is allowed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piatkowski declined to comment Thursday, saying he was already the target of organized online harassment and didn\u2019t want to feed it further. He referred to two previous interviews with local media outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The human rights code<\/a> bars discrimination based on gender identity and other grounds in the areas of housing, employment and providing services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked to explain how Burjoski\u2019s comments violated the code, the chair told 570 News<\/a> radio station that he would not repeat or respond to her remarks and \u201cgive them oxygen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he said he stood by his decision, and that chairs of other boards in the province have told him they would have done the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis person was speaking about transgender people in a way that was disrespectful, that would cause them to be attacked and I really needed to ensure it did not continue,\u201d Piatkowski said. \u201cI\u2019m quite confident it was the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Thursday he knew nothing about the board\u2019s actions against Burjoski or removal of the video of the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Board spokesperson Eusis Dougan-McKenzie said Friday the video was not officially posted because of concerns about a possible human-rights code violation. In a statement, WDRSB said \u201cwe would like to express our deep regret for any harm caused to the transgender community\u201d by Burjoski\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two groups representing the LGBTQ community in Waterloo could not be reached for comment. Trans activists, however, often argue that statements questioning medical transition in any way can fuel transgender harassment, discrimination and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sorry that someone who opened the door to transphobic comments was stopped from keeping that door open,\u201d Laura Mae Lindo, the NDP MPP for Kitchener Centre, commented on Twitter. \u201cThat\u2019s not over-reach. Protect the most vulnerable. Uphold human rights. If you can\u2019t do that, sit down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Waterloo trustee who came to Burjoski\u2019s defence on Monday, though, blasted the board\u2019s decision and said he\u2019s never seen a delegation silenced in that way before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cIt\u2019s censoring presentations that the chair doesn\u2019t agree with,\u201d said long-time board member Mike Ramsay, who has served as chair three times himself. \u201cAs decision makers, we have to make informed decisions.\u2026 If we\u2019re going to just take one point of view and say that\u2019s sufficient, that\u2019s wrong on so many fronts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burjoski said she has worked for more than 20 years as a teacher of English as a second language, specializing in children who have immigrated from various countries affected by war and political unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She appeared as a one-person public \u201cdelegation\u201d in a session discussing the board\u2019s controversial decision to conduct a system-wide removal of books it considered \u201charmful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her comments focused on resources recommended by the board for a transgender awareness day. Trouble started when she turned to a book called The Other Boy by M.G. Hennessey<\/a> and a scene that depicts a meeting between Shane, a transgender boy (born a girl), and a doctor. He voices excitement about starting on testosterone and when the physician says it would mean he likely wouldn\u2019t be able to have children, he says, \u201cIt\u2019s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we\u2019re going to just take one point of view and say that\u2019s sufficient, that\u2019s wrong<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Burjoski remarked that such books make it seem overly straightforward to take cross-sex hormones, Piatkowski interjected to warn she may be violating the code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teacher then went on to say the book was misleading \u201cbecause it does not take into account how Shane might feel later in life about being infertile. This book makes very serious medical interventions seem like an easy cure for emotional and psychological distress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that point, Piatkowski told her he was \u201cending the presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The widely used \u201caffirmation\u201d approach to children who identify as transgender has raised some concerns<\/a> in several countries, and not just among obvious critics. Two leading psychologists in the transgender medical community, one of them a trans woman, complained in a recent article<\/a> about sloppy and dangerous assessment of young people presenting as trans, with overly hasty resort to hormones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pam Buffone, whose parents group Canadian Gender Report<\/a> highlights similar issues, said Burjoski raised legitimate questions about the appropriateness of school materials, as places like Finland restrict the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s a reason to hide this discussion from public scrutiny, then there\u2019s really something wrong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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‘No dissent is allowed’: School board bars teacher from raising concerns over transgender books ‘I am not a transphobic person. It\u2019s crazy that just because you ask a question, the first thing people do is call you that’ Tom Blackwell, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3952,3953,3956,3957,359,3951,3955,569,3954],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7131"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7135,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7131\/revisions\/7135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}