By Patrick B. Craine
HAMILTON, Ontario, September 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Frustrated at the Ontario government’s efforts to impose homosexualism on the province’s schools? One top pro-family leader says that the answer is simple: “Leave the public system.”
But Phil Lees, the director of a pro-family group called PEACE, says he recognizes that some families may not be able to take this more direct approach, and is therefore educating parents on other alternatives that are available to them.
PEACE (an acronym for Public Education Advocates for Christian Equality) is a network of churches and families founded two years ago in Hamilton after the public school board adopted a sexual orientation policy that mandated positive instruction on homosexuality.
The group, under the leadership of Lees, has sought to educate families in the board on school policy and curriculum. Families have four options for education, they say: Catholic school, Christian private school, homeschool, or working within the public board.
“We tell our parents the first choice is to leave the [public] system,” said Lees. “If you cannot do that, for whatever reason, then the only other thing that you can do is share your faith, request that it be respected and that your child not be exposed.”
“I’m not going to be the judge as to how successful that will be,” he noted, however.
Lees is disseminating an April 2008 letter from former Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne, where she states: “Should a component of any course conflict with a religious belief held by a parent or a student aged eighteen or older, the right to withdraw from that component of the course shall be granted on the written request of the parent or student.”
In response to that invitation, Lees’ group has created a form that allows the family to share their faith with their school, indicating the areas of the curriculum that could potentially lead to conflict. The form asks that teachers inform the parents before a controversial issue is discussed. A parent is then able to decide whether or not to take the child out of class. Thus far, they have submitted about 400 forms in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.
The promotion of the homosexual agenda in schools has become a province-wide problem due to the Ontario government’s Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy, which has required all boards, Catholic and public, to develop an equity policy by this month. The policies are required to recognize special rights for homosexuals. The government has even recommended schools celebrate Pride parades and welcome gay-straight alliances and other homosexualist clubs.
In response to the government’s campaign, PEACE has received requests to expand their efforts to boards across the province. They have set up another chapter in Ottawa, and are talking with representatives from London, Windsor, Sarnia, and Toronto, among others. With the growth in interest, they have set up facilitator training, allowing a church to send a representative who will then be equipped to educate his church.
Lees, who spent thirty years in education, explained that opting out of classes is only suggested for those who cannot leave the public system. Private schools and homeschooling are the first alternatives, while Catholic schools have also proved to be a successful option.
The campaign for “equity” is not just aimed at the classrooms, but affects the “entire school atmosphere,” he emphasized. “You’ll walk into the school and … if it’s a billboard dealing with family, you’re going to have gay marriages on there,” he said. “You’re going to have all kinds of things going on.”
He noted, for example, that homosexualism can even affect mathematics through word problems. Further, he mentioned that the government advocates something called the “queer heroes strategy,” which potentially affects all classes. Any time a distinguished person is discussed who supposedly had same-sex attractions, he or she is labelled as a homosexual. Those of normal sexuality are not labelled as such, he said.
Yet at the same time, he sees the opt-out strategy as a potential vehicle for major change in the system. “If we could have ten percent of families taking these forms in, it would create a crisis with the education system,” he explained. “They have to supervise those kids when they go to the library. You’re going to have ten, twelve, forty kids in the library at any one given time.”
“They can put their heels in the ground and say no way we’re not doing this, but if they do that then it leaves it to a constitutional challenge,” he added.
Lees would like the public school boards to adopt programs that accommodate people of faith. He noted, for example, that five public boards in Ontario incorporate faith-sensitive classrooms. He also pointed to the Edmonton Public School Board, where they have succeeded in retaining a large percentage of students by allowing schools for Christians, Ukrainians, Chinese, and others.
Parents are asking schools, he says, to “respect my fear, and help me to have my child educated in an environment where I don’t have to be fearful of the system.”
“As a parent, my number one responsibility is to have my child choose to live in a way that’s honouring to God so that when they pass on, they hear ‘well done good and faithful servant’,” he said.
More information can be found on PEACE’s efforts at their website.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
‘Equity’: Ontario School Board Nixes Christian References in Policy
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10062311.html
Ontario Equity Strategy Threatens to Embed Religious Discrimination: CLC
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/sep/10090211.html
Parents Must Unite to Scrap Ontario Equity Strategy, Says Pro-Family Group
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/aug/10083106.html