N.B. education council urges government to follow recommendations on Policy 713

The Anglophone South District Education Council is asking the province to heed the child and youth advocate’s recommendations on Policy 713.

The district education council (DEC) voted on Wednesday night to send a letter to Education Minister Bill Hogan calling on the government to adopt the recommendations found in Kelly Lamrock’s report on the policy. Anglophone West DEC chair Roger Nesbit confirmed that the letter had been sent, but turned down an interview request.

Other DECs are discussing the report and deciding how to proceed.

“Obviously a lot now depends on what the government decides to do,” said Kristin Cavoukian, who sits on the Anglophone East DEC.

“If they rewrite Policy 713 in a way that doesn’t require any DEC additions then we won’t need to do anything and that conflict won’t arise.”

On Tuesday Lamrock released his report on the changes to Policy 713, saying the revised policy violates the Charter, the Education Act and the Human Rights Act.

In June the province revised the policy to no longer require teachers to use the preferred name or pronouns of students under 16 without parental consent. Lamrock recommended that students over 12 be able to informally change their name or pronouns in the learning environment without parental permission, with provisions to assess the ability of younger students to be able to make that decision. The recommendations are non-binding.

Both the Anglophone South and Anglophone East DECs have previously adopted their own version of the policy that says all students have the right to use the names and pronouns of their choice at school. Last week Hogan told reporters that those policies would be in conflict with the provincial one and therefore invalid.

“The Education Act is very clear: provincial policy supersedes district policy. Districts have the authority to improve or strengthen a provincial policy, but they can’t do anything that is contrary to the provincial policy,” he said.

But Lamrock, a lawyer and former education minister, takes a different view. He said the vagueness of the provincial policy not only allows DECs to fill in the blanks, but in some regard obligates them to ensure what is being enforced in schools is legally compliant.

The policy as written no longer makes it mandatory for teachers to use the preferred name and pronouns of a student under 16, but Hogan has been clear since the revisions were announced that he wants teachers to be barred from following a student’s wishes without parental permission.

Cavoukian said she was pleased to see the DECs approach supported in the report.

“There is a problem with vagueness and the fact is that Kelly Lamrock has validated the DECs role in elaborating a policy when that policy has been left so vague by the government,” she said.

“Part of the problem with the policy is that it leaves teachers and principals and other administrators in a situation where they’re not sure legally what they ought to do in a certain situation and in fact what he says is in a situation like that the DEC is not only able to but in fact is duty-bound to elaborate policy to point administrators and teachers in the right direction and that is what we will do.”

Lamrock also prepared a possible set of policies for DECs to adopt should the province opt not to make changes to the policy to ensure that it is legally compliant. Cavoukian said the Anglophone East DEC will meet soon to consider next steps.