LONDON, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Hundreds of students stayed home on May 17 as Ontario schools flew the rainbow “pride” flag.
Over 400 students, including about a third of the student body at Eagle Heights Elementary School in London, Ontario, were absent as schools raised “pride” flags to mark the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, as reported by The London Free Press. Many of the student were from Muslim families.
In response to the absences, Craig Smith, president of the Thames Valley district of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, encouraged the board to engage in “courageous conversations” with the Muslim community.
“At the end of the day, there is clearly a big issue there that needs to be addressed,” Smith said.
UPDATE (05/30/23): Major victory as York Catholic District School Board votes against raising LGBT flag
Your committment to this campaign has paid off - please continue circulating the petition far and wide, and read below about our huge victory at YCDSB thanks to people like you.
(LifeSiteNews) - During a May 29 York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) meeting, trustees voted 6-4 against flying the pro-LGBT flag atop of its schools and other buildings in celebration of so-called “Pride Month”, in a move that has been met with pleasant surprise by pro-family advocates.
While the decision brought cheers from the crowd, some angrily shouted in protest and had to be escorted out by YCDSB security.
“The Cross represents all!” Myles Vosylius, a former student at Cardinal Carter Catholic High School in Aurora, Ontario, tweeted, celebrating the decision.
“The cross represents all!” - Faithful Catholic attending the @YCDSB meeting tonight, where the victorious decision was made NOT to fly the ‘pride’ flag! #YCDSB #CdnPoli #OnPoli pic.twitter.com/CSNCEQbS0c
— Myles Vosylius (@TheMylesV) May 30, 2023
While the YCDSB represents a victory for faithful Catholics in York region, many Catholic school boards have caved to pressure by LGBT activists and will fly “pride flags” during the month of June. However, increasingly, Ontario parents are fighting back as hundreds of students, reportedly predominantly Muslim, stayed home earlier this month when their schools flew the flag.
Parents have also begun to speak out against LGBT agenda being promoted to their children in schools. Pro-LGBT trustee for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) Wendy Ashby recently resigned after over 3,000 parents petitioned for her ousting.
Similarly, last month, a group of young Canadians protested a school-sponsored drag queen event in front of York Mills Collegiate Institute in Toronto.
Furthermore, Campaign Life Coalition is calling for parents to keep their children home from school on June 1 to protest schools flying the “pride flag.”
“Parents need to keep up the pressure, just like this, right across the country!” Fonseca encouraged.
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As Catholics, we are taught that we must love our neighbour and treat every individual as a child of God, accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity.
Parents make a clear choice when they decide that their children will attend a Catholic school. They rightly expect that trustees, principals, teachers all partners in education will ensure that Catholic teaching is presented, lived and infused in all that we do. In that regard, the appropriate symbol that represents our faith, and the inclusion and acceptance of others, is the cross, which is visible at the entrance of every Catholic school. It is the primary symbol of our Christian faith.
We have created this petition to express opposition of flying the pride flag at schools for the month of June. Our kids should not be forced to celebrate anyones sexuality, and a flag will do nothing to keep anyone more safe. Its nothing more than a symbol of sexual celebration, completely inappropriate.
Catholicism and parental rights are being threatened, and we will not allow teachers who are LGBTQ to influence our children.
We are not homophobes. We are trying to shield our children from any sexual ideologies, both gay and straight. Children are minors who have a right to a normal and innocent childhood. We are not STAKEHOLDERS. We are parents. EQUITY is not and will never be the same as EQUALITY. Inclusion means EVERYONE and the York Region Catholic District School Board & its Union members are infringing upon our religious beliefs by suffocating our children with woke political agendas & indoctrinations when they should be focusing on educating our kids!
We love all humans equally. Hate is the wrong word to describe parents feelings about the climate in schools today. Parents protesting the pride flag at school do not harbour any negative feelings towards the LGBTQ+ community. We do however feel that their rights seem to supersede everyone elses. We also believe that kids should never learn about sex at school and we condemn any classroom discussion or public display that encourages or promotes gender confusion and same sex lifestyles in a classroom setting. We also strongly condemn the nature of several library books that contain sensitive material on homosexuality and transgender issues in elementary school libraries. Similarly, we harbour no contempt for transgenders as individuals but their insistence on using female-only spaces is invasive.
The promotion of a pride sticker and the likelihood that a flag will go up in June at all schools suggests a particular political agenda, which warrants examination. Concern about alleged incidents of bullying directed at the LGBTQ community within schools has been raised. However when requesting specific information on the actual number of such reports, it was communicated that the data is currently confidential and not publicly available. Despite clarifying that only the number of incidents was desired, the same response was given.
The lack of transparency and information provided by the York Region Catholic District School Board concerning alleged incidents combined with these extreme campaigns using safe space stickers to promote political agendas, raises necessary questions about their motives. Despite facing opposition from relevant individuals, including the Archbishop of Toronto and Cardinal Collins, who have both explicitly expressed their disapproval of such displays, the union and its members have vehemently insisted the stickers remain.
We must stand up against this before the Board caves to the pressure of political correctness and decide to raise the pride flag too.
Please share this. We must get as many signatures as possible before May 20th so that we may present a united front at this months meeting with this petition in hand that will speak for itself and will represent all of us.
Thank you.
Sheree D
Tami Murray, president of the umbrella group Oxford County Pride, said she was left “speechless” by the idea of parents keeping children home to avoid the LGBT celebration.
“I guess it’s the parents’ choice, but it’s very unfortunate,” she lamented.
“In a time where the same group (Muslims) has been quite marginalized, you would think that minorities and marginalized groups would unite and support each other,” she added.
One teacher from Thames Valley, the region’s largest school board, was missing almost half her class on Wednesday and said teachers are “tired of fighting against discrimination.”
Thames Valley provided little information as to why the absences took place. Andrew Canham, the board’s superintendent of student achievement, promised, “We will work with individuals, schools and communities who may have experienced higher than usual absenteeism rates on May 17 or any other day during the school year to encourage all students to attend school when they are able.”
According to an anonymous source within the school system, other elementary schools reported low attendance rates that day, including Ashley Oaks, Sir George Etienne Cartier, Westmount and Sir Isaac Brock elementary schools. At Arthur Ford Public School, 375 students were absent, and 300 students were missing from Wilfrid Jury Public School.
Jack Fonseca of Campaign Life Coalition was encouraged by what took place, telling LifeSiteNews, “Thank God for these Muslim families who kept their children home on the so-called International Day against Transphobia and Homophobia, another invention of the gay lobby which is used for indoctrination!”
“Parents said a big fat NO to teachers brainwashing their children with homosexual and transgender ideology,” he continued. “The risk of being called ‘homophobic’ by the mainstream media was obviously less important to these loving moms and dads than the need to protect their children’s immortal souls from being led to accept evil as good, and good as evil.”
“I would guess another factor for the mass absence was the fear of kids being groomed at these events to question their gender,” he suggested.
“Because of the rapidly spreading social contagion of children identifying as ‘transgendered’ and demanding to be put on puberty blockers, this is a realistic fear on the minds of a growing number of parents,” Fonseca explained. “It’s also well-founded because that is indeed happening, both in schools and on social media.”
This is not the first time that students at Eagle Heights Elementary have missed school on days when the “pride” flag was flown. In February, in celebration of “Rainbow Day,” the Thames Valley District school board saw an unusual number of absences, which education director Mark Fisher later claimed was a “miscommunication.”
Parents have begun to speak out against LGBT agenda being pushed on their children at school. Pro-LGBT school trustee Wendy Ashby recently resigned after over 3,000 parents petitioned for her resignation.
Similarly, last month, a group of young Canadians protested a school-sponsored drag queen event in front of York Mills Collegiate Institute in Toronto.
Fonseca urged Catholic and Christian parents “to follow the lead of these wonderful Muslims. In fact, I am encouraging all parents across Canada to plan what I will call a ‘Pride Flag Day of Absence’ as a form of peaceful protest on June 1st, the start of homosexual-and-transgender Pride Month.”
“Keep your children home that day,” he added. “Suggest it to other parents at your school to do the same so that we can emulate the mass absence experienced at Eagle Heights in every school across the nation which flies this symbol of sin and of LGBT political power.”
“Whether yours is a public or Catholic school that plans to fly the flag, let them hear your protest by the silence of your child’s absence,” Fonseca continued, adding that some schools plan to raise the “pride” flag before June 1 to avoid “the embarrassment of significant student absences on June 1st.”
Parents must find out which day their public or Catholic school is going to raise the LGBT flag,” he urged. “Demand an answer from your Principal or Vice-Principal. Ask directly whether they’re going to do it June 1st or on an earlier date. Don’t take no for an answer.”
“Then, spread the word to other families in your school, and make it happen,” Fonseca said. “It’s time to push back in large numbers.”