Halton Catholic School Board slammed for banning gay-straight student

[Shwa]

Clear as mud - did they 'ban' the groups because they were about homosexuality or because gay students might somehow be indentified by joining such groups?

Halton Catholic School Board slammed for banning gay-straight student groups

The Halton Catholic District School Board has banned student gay-straight alliances, despite a new Ontario law that urges schools to create these or similar equity-based clubs if requested by a student.

The controversial decision by the sprawling school board west of Toronto has sparked outrage among gay rights and equity activists — including a Halton board trustee who is gay — and launched a Facebook petition. It’s even been slammed by American celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, who, citing an article in Xtra!, called the ban “not cool.”

Perez Hilton, another American gawking at Canadian news? Oh, that wasn't a fair shot. Anyways, we have this from the board:

Under particular fire is board chair Alice Anne LeMay for naming “Nazi groups” as another type of student group that, like gay-straight alliances, do not belong in schools, noting they “don’t fall within the teachings of the Catholic church.”

...

LeMay has since apologized for comparing gay-straight alliances with Nazi groups. In a notice on its website Monday the board states the ban is actually meant to protect the privacy of gay students whose homosexuality might be publicized against their wishes by joining such a group.

Oh I get it, it is not "within the teachings of the Catholic Church" to out gay people.

Or WTF are they really saying?

[Wild Bill]

They are saying exactly what they appear to be saying!

These incidents were inevitable the day Bill Davis extended public funding to the separate school system. When you run on your own money you enjoy a reasonable measure of autonomy.

Now they're on the public teat and that means subject to the same rules, laws and expectations as anything else in the public sector. We've seen challenges over favouring Catholic teachers in hiring for separate schools. Now we have issues over gay rights and how they contradict some Catholic Church beliefs.

Comes with the territory, I say! The Catholic School system has no right to expect public funding while retaining total control over how they run their system. That simply isn't fair to all the non-catholic taxpayers who are contributing to their system.

Gays pay taxes too!

Edited January 11, 2011 by Charles Anthony
deleted re-copied Opening Post

[Oleg Bach]

These do gooder adults that seem to live vacarously through young people should shut the f up...let nature take it's course and stop with the encouragement of any sort of specialized sexual behaviour..in the old days this was called sexual interference. It's not about banning anything - it should be about banning jerky adults who have no real quality of sex life...who are overly interested in the possible sexual actions of young people....TEACHER - LEAVE THE KIDS ALONE.....Pink Floyd.

[Michael Hardner]

Now they're on the public teat and that means subject to the same rules, laws and expectations as anything else in the public sector. We've seen challenges over favouring Catholic teachers in hiring for separate schools. Now we have issues over gay rights and how they contradict some Catholic Church beliefs.

It's incumbent on people to first try to find a satisfactory compromise. Gay-Straight alliances sound to me like a very Christian idea.

[Oleg Bach]

It's incumbent on people to first try to find a satisfactory compromise. Gay-Straight alliances sound to me like a very Christian idea.

Christ had a member in his group that "loved him" - you will see this person portrayed in paintings leaning into the master in a very affectionate manner...There was a difference compared to now regarding homosexual tendency - Jesus and this "friend" did not blow each other....nothing wrong with homosexual love - as long as people do not confuse it with hetrosexual love and imagine the bowel as a vagina....hope I offended your liberality there Michael...lol.

[Michael Hardner]

You're not offensive, just grossly off topic.

[Black Dog]

You're not offensive, just grossly off topic.

I still don't understand how that guy is on the board. His offensive, off topic, irrelevant and incogherent ramblings are the worst kind of noise.

[Michael Hardner]

He doesn't irritate me enough to report him. I don't know if it's the "local web board flavour" of having our own guy walking around carrying a placard that says "the end is near" or what...

If enough folks report him, he'll go away for awhile, just like in real life.

[M.Dancer]

I still don't understand how that guy is on the board. His offensive, off topic, irrelevant and incogherent ramblings are the worst kind of noise.

I only peruse his blather if it is quoted.

Edited January 11, 2011 by M.Dancer

[Sir Bandelot]

I only peruse his blather if it is quoted.

Actually I believe he has written some of the most intelligent things ever said here. And conversely, some of the dumbest...

[Sir Bandelot]

Clear as mud - did they 'ban' the groups because they were about homosexuality or because gay students might somehow be indentified by joining such groups?

Oh I get it, it is not "within the teachings of the Catholic Church" to out gay people.

Saskatchewan is now more liberal than Halton. May you live in interesting times

[kimmy]

Perez Hilton, another American gawking at Canadian news? Oh, that wasn't a fair shot.

BC-2004 will be here to object, just as soon as he files his report about Lady GaGa's latest costume.

Or WTF are they really saying?

Something along the lines of "We're trying to find a way to package it that will let our lawyers weasel this through a court challenge."

-k

[August1991]

These incidents were inevitable the day Bill Davis extended public funding to the separate school system. When you run on your own money you enjoy a reasonable measure of autonomy.

What public school system runs on "its own" money?

In fact, private teacher unions largely dictate how public funds are spent for education in Canada, and everyone seems happy with their dictates.

Ontario and other provinces offer State-financing for different school boards operating in English and French. You choose your doctor but the State pays her fee.

Wild Bill, you are wrong to believe in theory and in practice that since the State pays, no discrimination occurs.

[Wild Bill]

What public school system runs on "its own" money?

In fact, private teacher unions largely dictate how public funds are spent for education in Canada, and everyone seems happy with their dictates.

Ontario and other provinces offer State-financing for different school boards operating in English and French. You choose your doctor but the State pays her fee.

Wild Bill, you are wrong to believe in theory and in practice that since the State pays, no discrimination occurs.

That's NOT what I said, August! The State of course from time to time harbors discrimination. That is not relevant here.

Before Bill Davis extended the funding Catholic school boards paid for their own secondary schools. They only hired catholic teachers and they set their cirriculum by their own catholic standards.

He who pays the piper, in other words. After they began to receive public funds the pressures started to abide by what are considered by some to be mainstream public standards, like gay rights religious hiring biases being discriminatory.

I might agree with you that public systems don't run on their own money. However, I was talking about the time when CATHOLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS ran on their own money here in Ontario! As a matter of fact, are you sure that the Catholic School Board even HAD a union in those days? If they did, I seriously doubt if it was the same union as the public school board.

[Michael Hardner]

WB Just because they receive public money, it doesn't mean that they have to negate their values to receive money.

[Black Dog]

WB Just because they receive public money, it doesn't mean that they have to negate their values to receive money.

It does when those values are arguably in conflict with the policies of the funding body:

At issue is the Ontario Ministry of Education's new rules that mandate school boards implement policies of student inclusion that allow gay and lesbian students to form clubs and support groups.

-G&M

[Wild Bill]

WB Just because they receive public money, it doesn't mean that they have to negate their values to receive money.

Yet that's precisely the argument, Michael! Where do you think the pressures on the Catholic School Board are coming from?

We can argue about whether or not there SHOULD be such pressures but if they didn't exist then how the hell did we wind up with this thread in the first place?

These days gay rights seem to be far more universally accepted than these actions by a Catholic school would appear. My point is that in the days when the separate school system ran on its own money few folks ever challenged them on what standards and values they expoused. That's not the case today.

[bloodyminded]

WB Just because they receive public money, it doesn't mean that they have to negate their values to receive money.

Well, they won't quite tell anyone what their values are.

Because their "values," according to themselves, is that they don't want the gay-straight alliance because of the potential danger to the gay students who wish to join the organization.

That is, they ban it because they like gay people so much!

So I guess oily, disingenuous justifications--lies, actually--are a self-evident part of their "values."

Edited January 17, 2011 by bloodyminded

[August1991]

These incidents were inevitable the day Bill Davis extended public funding to the separate school system. When you run on your own money you enjoy a reasonable measure of autonomy.

Huh?

If I set up a school designed for blind people, and the State provides financing for the school, am I wrong to refuse an applicant who can see?

[Michael Hardner]

It does when those values are arguably in conflict with the policies of the funding body:

No, it doesn't, and I don't see why it should.

[Michael Hardner]

Yet that's precisely the argument, Michael! Where do you think the pressures on the Catholic School Board are coming from?

We can argue about whether or not there SHOULD be such pressures but if they didn't exist then how the hell did we wind up with this thread in the first place?

The last time I remember a similar case, it was about forcing St. Michael's hospital to perfrom abortions in the late 1990s. I believe church law won out on that.