Second in a series examining the state of sexual health education in public schools

Comox Valley parents are at the forefront of sexual health education in British Columbia, having recently won unanimous province-wide support for an expanded public schools curriculum that got the attention and a large measure of respect from Education Ministry officials.

Every BC school district that attended the recent Conference of Parent Advisory Council’s annual general meeting last month, voted to support a resolution from Ecole Puntledge Park Elementary parents that calls for an age-appropriate curriculum, including consent and online safety as key concepts, from Kindergarten through Grade 12.

At present, sexual health education in BC ends in Grade 10, and the provincial curriculum does not focus on consent or the risks posed by modern technology. Nor does the province fully fund consent-based training for teachers, another demand in the parents’ resolution.

On the local level, parents’ advocacy through individual, school-based Parent Advisory Councils has shone a light on gaps in sexual health education within School District 71, and their work has led to significant changes.

District student services director makes five recommendations about how to spend 2019/2020 sexual health education funding, which has dropped from previous years

For the first time, sexual health education received its own line item in next year’s annual budget and makes a debut in the district’s new four-year strategic plan. There has also been a significant increase this year in the amount of sexual health education classroom time for K-10 students.

The parents and commending the board and district administration for these improvements, even though some of their other issues haven’t been as well received.

Beyond more classroom time, parents have advocated for nearly two years to expand sexual health education into Grades 11 and 12, to create uniformity and consistency of lessons across the district and to fund a designated district-wide sexual health educator to provide oversight of content and coaching for teachers.

Comox Valley parents have also asked the district to develop new policies regarding sexual harassment and assault that include a protocol for reporting and disclosure of incidents involving students.

Despite widespread support for these initiatives from SD71 Parent Advisory Councils, and a province-wide parental endorsement, the local district administration and board of trustees have been hesitant.

Making sexual health education a priority

School Board Chair Janice Caton says sexual health education is a district priority, which now has its own line item in the annual budget.

“Over the past few years, sexual health education has been identified by both parents and the district as a priority and, as a result, the district has made a strong commitment to supporting sexual health education by providing resources, which are included in the budget as a line item,” she told Decafnation via email.

Trustees approved the district’s 2020 budget June 25. But in its final form, the district proposes to spend about 30 percent less on sexual health education than in previous years when it contracted delivery of the curriculum to an outside expert, Dr. Claire Vanston of Nanaimo.

The district has budgeted district-wide sexual health support for approximately eight hours per week (0.2 FTE) at $19,260, plus another $5,000 for sexual and mental health resources in a separate line item. The budget notes that the educator position is tenuous and reviewable annually.

In contrast, according to a report prepared for SD71 in January 2018 by former superintendent Clyde Woolman, the district had paid Vanston, a private sexual health education professional, approximately $35,800 the previous year to teach students directly.

Of that amount, $25,000 came from district funds, and the remainder from grants which Vanston applied for herself.

The Comox Valley DPAC Sexual Health Committee members say they were underwhelmed by the district’s financial commitment to it in next year’s budget, despite widespread support of parents in the district.

Brooke Finlayson at Brooklyn Elementary’s garden area

Brooke Finlayson, a member of the committee, acknowledges the new budget line items and says the addition highlights the need for increased and sustained funding of the sexual health program in SD 71.

“This is a nuanced area of education, one that requires an educator with specific knowledge of the subject matter, understanding of the ever-changing trends and the impacts that online use is having on children’s health and safety,” she told Decafnation.

The committee would like to see a full-time district liaison who would oversee sexual health program delivery and promote consistency in sexual health education between all schools.

Other districts, such as Nanaimo, have already taken this approach with a full-time sexual health educator.

She says parents also want sexual health taught to students in grades 11 and 12 at all the secondary schools.

“Parents have raised concerns about the district’s past patchwork approach to sexual health education where students at some schools received more lessons in sexual health education than in other schools,” Finlayson told Decafnation. “It is important that does not continue.”

From the district’s perspective

School District 71 Superintendent Dean Lindquist says sexual health education is not just a priority for public schools, “I’d say it’s a priority for society.”

But, he also says, the word ‘priority’ means different things to different people.

“We have parents who want more sexual health education, and other parents who think the schools are superseding the parental role … We have to pay attention to those who don’t want us to teach sexual health education,” he told Decafnation. “Our response is to try to balance those perspectives.”

The district Parents Advisory Council committee on sexual health education wonders how many parents have actually spoken against sexual health education.

There is no defining data, but the results of the district’s recent strategic planning survey, which was released last Friday, shows no responses urging the district to cutback on sexual health education. By comparison, there are more than 100 responses asking the district for more classroom time on the topic.

Still, the issue isn’t about dollars and cents, according to Lindquist, it’s about the content of teaching.

“I don’t want to get into dollars here and dollars there. At the end of the day it’s not the cost of the program that’s important, it’s the delivery,” he said. “It’s important that teachers understand the content and what we’re doing.”

In reference to the parents request for a full-time district resource person, Lindquist said he didn’t see the benefit.

“What would this person do? We’re trying to build system capacity, not something that disappears with one person,” he said. “There are 1,000 ways to fix any problem. Just because I don’t pick your way doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.”

More potential improvements coming?

At this week’s school board meeting, Director of Student Services Ester Shatz made five recommendations for improving sexual health education in the future, which partly address some of the Comox Valley parents’ concerns.

The decision to implement any of Shatz’s suggestion will be considered by district senior leadership in the fall. When the board of trustees approved the 2019/2020 budget, they allocated money for sexual health education, but the board does not decide who is brought in for professional development or how the curriculum is implemented.

Shatz said she consulted with school principals and vice-principals about how to spend the money trustees put in the 2020 budget for sexual health education.

— Contract Dr. Vanston four hours per month throughout the school year to provide consultation regarding critical issues and resources;

— Use the remainder of the FTE equivalent (dollars) to provide release time to those teachers who are in need of training and to purchase and update resources as necessary;

— That we re-establish our relationship with our community partners, Island Health in particular to provide expert consultation and possible sessions to our students;

— That we design a learning series for grade 11 and 12 students outside of the curriculum regarding issues of consent, digital safety and preparing for life after high school; and

— Invite Dr. Vanston to present at the 2020 teacher Professional Development day.

The recommendations came as a surprise — albeit a pleasant one — to the District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC).

Shannon Aldinger, who chairs the DPAC sexual health committee, and Finlayson said they were pleased with Shatz’s recommendations, especially to extend some sexual health education into Grades 11 and 12, and to crease further learning opportunities for teachers.

But both were also disappointed that Shatz didn’t go further.

“I am very pleased with the recommendations that sexual health education be extended to grades 11 and 12 and that the district continue to draw upon Dr. Claire’s (Vanston) expertise both for curriculum development and teacher training,” Aldinger told Decafnation via email.

She said if the district approves these recommendations, it would represent significant progress and be “highly commendable.”

“That said, I am disappointed that the funding to do so would be drawn from the stated .2 position rather than another source such as learning resources (which was the source of funding for sexual health in previous years), particularly given that there has been no increase in funding for sexual health from previous years,” Aldinger said.

Finlayson echoed those comments.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed that we won’t have an actual point person for the .2 FTE … but things move slowly around here and this is more than we’ve ever had,” Finlayson said via email. “This initiative was truly parent-driven and we’ve earned that, at least.”

Superintendent Dean Lindquist said the district frequently makes recommendations for all of its educational programs.

“These recommendations specifically were in response to the Board of Education’s request to ensure we continue to build capacity with our sexual health education curriculum,” Lindquist told Decafnation via email. “They reflect the observations made by Dr. Claire Vanston, the input shared from the Parent Advisory Councils, and the feedback from our educators.”

Board of Trustees Chair Janice Caton said the recommendations were reflective of what the district has heard about about providing continuing sexual health education.

“The board of education absolutely supports the need to provide students a strong education on sexual heath and consent, and we will continue to work with our parents, educators and other districts in BCSTA to advocate for the Ministry of Education to include consent in the BC curriculum,” Caton told Decafnation.

Next: Why do parents want sexual health education to be extended to Grades 11 and 12? And, sexual harassment and other dangers confronting students and worrying parents of teenagers in School District 71.

This article was updated to correct that trustees do not vote to approve recommendations on how program money is spent once the budget is approved. That is a consideration for district administration.

First in a series examining the state of sexual health education in public schools

A couple of generations ago, it was controversial for elementary and high school teachers to talk to students about “the birds and the bees.” Only a handful of British Columbia school districts dared to offer locally developed programs. Even as recent as the early 1980s, many school boards were banning or limiting sex education because trustees still considered it the sole perorgative of parents.

Times have changed, and so has the public’s mood.

There’s a general acceptance today that sexual health education needs to be part of our public schools’ core curriculum. It’s being driven in large part by the ever-increasing student exposure to online and social media dangers through technology, as well as disconcerting trends toward increased sexual violence among teenagers.

A University of Calgary study published last week found that one in four teens between the ages of 12 and 17 have received sexually explicit texts or videos, one in seven have sent them and one in eight have forwarded ‘sexts’ on to other teens without consent. And, the study involving 42,000 participants determined that sexting is linked to teenage anxiety, depression and substance use.

Also last week, the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada released its first revision since 2008 of the Canadian Guidelines for Sexual Health Education. The major change found in the new guidelines is the addition of technology, LGBTQ12S+ and ‘consent’ as foundational education pillars, issues that weren’t on the radar of previous generations of students and parents.

But these are the issues that have motivated and mobilized a growing number of Comox Valley public school parents to press School District 71, and the provincial Ministry of Education, for a more robust and relevant curriculum for sexual health education.

In fact, Comox Valley parents are leading British Columbia in this direction. They have recently received unanimous support from parents across the province’s school districts, and their efforts have earned the ear of BC Parliamentary Secretary for Gender Equality Mitzi Dean and BC Education Minister Rob Fleming.

Shannon Aldinger

Courtenay Lawyer Shannon Aldinger is one of the parents who has been advocating for better sexual health education (SHE) in Comox Valley schools. She represents the Ecole Puntledge Park Elementary Parents Advisory Council at the District Parents Advisory Council (DPAC), and chairs that group’s select committee on sexual health education.

Last month, Aldinger presented a resolution to the BC Conference of Parent Advisory Councils annual general meeting that urged the Ministry of Education to expand the BC sexual health curriculum to Grades 11 and 12 — it currently ends at Grade 10 — and to include the concept of consent as well as modern tech issues, such as the risks associated with sexting and online pornography.

The resolution was passed unanimously by the 205 parent delegates to the AGM, representing 42 of the province’s 60 school districts, including seven Comox Valley schools represented at the AGM. Four other SD71 schools supported the resolution but were not eligible to vote.

It was a landmark moment for expanding sexual health education in BC.

The vote of support from 70 percent of all BC school districts not only pushes sexual health education toward a richer and more relevant curriculum, it also shines a positive light on almost two years of advocacy work by Comox Valley parents for better sexual health education in SD71.

“The clear message from the conference is that parents across BC, including PACs across our district, including all three of our secondary school PACS, support these requests,” Aldinger told Decafnation.

Passage of the resolution denotes a major victory for sexual health education improvements at the BC level, which parent advocates hope will trickle down to individual districts.

Two weeks ago, Aldinger made a similar presentation for expanded sexual health education in the BC curriculum to the province’s Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services during its 2020 budget consultations, and won support from Parliamentary Secretary Mitzi Dean.

“To be in an age where we can have somebody like you who can come and talk about such an area that is really quite taboo and to come and present such a well-researched and comprehensive proposal, I really welcome it. And you have my commitment to taking this forward,” Dean said after Aldinger’s presentation.

Background of sexual health education in SD71

Since 2010, School District 71 has relied on an outside consultant, Dr. Claire Vanston of Nanaimo, to design and implement its sexual health education program. But in mid-2017, Vanston announced she would no longer provide this service beyond the 2019 school year.

In partial response to Vanston’s impending departure, and also to address parent requests for an expanded program, School District 71 commissioned former superintendent Clyde Woolman in December of 2017 to report on the state of sexual health education in Comox Valley schools.

In his report dated Jan. 16, 2018, Woolman discusses a wide variety of issues. Among them is whether teachers at the time were actually teaching sexual health.

According to Woolman, when the district hired Vanston as its outside sexual health educator, most teachers regarded her as the primary program delivery vehicle, and assumed they did not have to teach the material themselves. Woolman’s report says Vanston also believed teachers held that perception.

It’s a misconception that School District 71 Superintendent Dean Lindquist acknowledges.

“We’d relied on an expert to the point where we weren’t teaching it,” Lindquist told Decafnation. “We wouldn’t do that in math or the sciences. I then realized we had no capacity (to teach sexual health education). I had assumed teachers were teaching the curriculum and Dr. Claire was functioning as a resource.”

So the district shifted gears. During the current 2019 school year Vanston did not teach the material to students directly. Instead, she focused on coaching teachers to teach the SHE curriculum, and then reviewed their progress.

She has also provided the district with lesson plans and other resources. Her contract with the district ended this month.

“We have been building capacity in the last year,” Lindquist said. “We have amazing teachers in this district and I have faith they will do it (teach sexual health) well, and already are. It would blow your socks off what our teachers are doing.”

Aldinger agrees. She says Comox Valley teachers have received good training and support this past year and are doing a good job with the new material.

“We (the district PAC sexual health committee) hope that the district will continue to support the teachers with additional training opportunities and resources each year,” she said.

The DPAC committee also hopes the district will bring in external speakers for presentations that teachers may not be comfortable teaching, such as the interplay between sexuality and technology, including the risks associated with sexting and adolescent use of online pornography.

Confidence about teaching sexual health — a topic that requires sensitivity and up-to-date language usage — varies among teachers.

Woolman reported that Comox Valley classroom teachers have had no specific training in sexual health education, and most would feel uncomfortable “and even vulnerable” discussing sexual issues.

“While it may be that a few Physical Health Education teachers may feel reasonably competent and comfortable teaching the health material … the vast majority of PHE teachers will not,” Woolman said in last year’s report.

Improvements made this year

At the time of the Woolman report, the school district only funded sexual health education for grades 1, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10, and sometimes for only 60 minutes per year. And, in previous years, grade 1 students received no sexual health education.

In response, individual school Parent Advisory Councils had been doing their own fundraising to pay for additional sexual health education time or to cover the topic in the other grades.

But in this last year, according to Vanston, roughly 90 percent to 95 percent of SD71 students now receive sexual health classes every year from kindergarten through grade 10.

“The increase in students receiving sexual health education in our district is a significant improvement from past years,” Aldinger said.

Next: Has SD71 made sexual health education a priority?