An Ontario school board is asking teachers to keep students’ gender transition confidential from their parents if asked to do so by the students, according to documents seen by The Epoch Times. This is contrary to the direction of the province’s education minister, who has said parents must be involved when it comes to this issue.
Internal documents obtained by The Epoch Times provide a look at how Ontario school boards are directing school administrators on the issue.
The Thames Valley District School Board, which serves London and other cities, has implemented a system dubbed MyName that allows students to choose preferred names that appear in the school’s various virtual systems, such as Google Classroom or the school’s library system. A Jan. 18, 2023, school board memo obtained by The Epoch Times tells administrators not to include the same name in the Student Information System (SIS) without getting the approval of the student, since the names on the SIS could be reflected in portals accessible by parents.
“Students may request a MyName change for several reasons, the most common being that not all students are ‘out’ to their parents, guardians or caregivers and are not ready or comfortable to add a Preferred Name to the SIS,” reads the memo.