What hypocrisy
I was raised in an era when parental responsibilities were assumed, and parental rights were rarely mentioned. Responsible speech was also valued and expected.
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What hypocrisy
I was raised in an era when parental responsibilities were assumed, and parental rights were rarely mentioned. Responsible speech was also valued and expected.
I was raised in an era when parental responsibilities were assumed, and parental rights were rarely mentioned. Responsible speech was also valued and expected.
One of the things I was taught was that if you point a finger at someone, you will have three pointed back at you.
In a recent interview for a Steinbach radio station, Konrad Narth, MLA for La Verendrye, called Minister of Education Tracy Schmidt a hypocrite for requiring Hanover School Division, a public school board, to rescind a recent policy which instructs HSD staff not to respect the mature minor decision-making legislation in divisional schools.
This legislation allows a mature student at the age of 16 to seek medical help without informing parents — critical for students who might face emotional or even physical abuse at home.
In her letter, the minister asks the board to respect the law and reminds them of their mandate to provide high-quality education and a safe and healthy learning environment for all students in their care.
In criticizing the minister, Mr. Narth may be forgetting Bill 64, put forward by his own party shortly before it was defeated in the last election. Bill 64 would have centralized control of public education by the province and would have essentially neutered boards and trustees. Or he is hoping we had forgotten?
While he admits that that the school board policy in question is, in fact, illegal, he suggests that maybe the board should still be allowed to find ways around this.
He claims to want to see home-schoolers and private school students return to the public system, but only on their terms and with the parental rights to limit that system.
But I feel that parents who have have opted to educate their children at home or in private schooling have already exercised their choice and should leave a truly inclusive and child-centred public system to the rest of us.
And the safety and well-being of all students should not be compromised by engaging in divisive political behaviour or petty name-calling by our elected representatives.
Re: The true cost of your pet — for everyone (Think Tank, Aug. 7)
Source: Read the original article on www.winnipegfreepress.com
