WAKE UP!!!
While we're waiting, I want to share this article with you. It's about a formal complaint made by a teacher against a former principal. Frances Jacques was the principal at St. Joseph Catholic high school (Mississauga) last year. The complaint refers to Jacques turning down a request by students to form a Gay-Straight Alliance at their school. After their request was denied, the students fought publicly to form this group.
In fact, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you might recall me writing about this in June of last year: "Catholic students are fighting for Gay-Straight Alliances ..."
Obviously, I'm on the side of the GSA in this case. That said, I want to clarify something: Yes, this complaint has been made against a specific person, however, I don't think that this is a one-person issue by ANY means. This is a school board issue (and beyond that, an issue within the Catholic faith and the Vatican, but I'm not taking that one on). So while I agree with the concept of taking on the school board's stance on banning GSA's, I don't agree with pointing the finger at one specific person. I can only imagine the pressure that Jacques was under, and by reading comments made by St. Joe's students, this has never been a personal issue between Jacques and the students. I repeat, this is a Catholic School Board Issue! (If you need more convincing, read the last sentence of the article, which I've italicized).
You can be sure I'll be following this one closely, and I will keep you posted. In the meantime, read this article from TheStar.com and leave a comment below ...
Emphasis added by myself.
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College asked to investigate Catholic principal who banned gay-straight alliance
By Kristin Rushowy, Education Reporter
Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2012
Ontario’s College of Teachers has been asked to investigate a Catholic principal for professional misconduct after students were banned from starting a gay-straight alliance at their Mississauga high school.
In a formal complaint, teacher Thomas McCue asks that the college look at the alleged “actions or inactions” of Frances Jacques, principal of St. Joseph Catholic high school last year, that could have “put certain groups at increased risk, which is contrary to the code of conduct of members.”
McCue is referring to a group of students led by Leanne Iskander, who asked to form a gay-straight alliance but were turned down. They said the principal instead offered talks with the school’s chaplain or that they join other groups already running at the school.
Even though gay-straight alliances are common in public schools, Catholic boards have not allowed them, given the Vatican’s stance against homosexuality.
Although McCue has named Jacques in the complaint — because she was the front-line official involved — the complaint could have much wider implications for the Catholic system’s approach to such clubs.
As McCue followed media reports on the St. Joseph’s incident, “it all seemed unreal to me,” he said in a telephone interview from the Montreal area, where he now lives with his same-sex partner.
“When I shared it with the staff (at his current school), they thought Ontario was living in the 1960s.”
(The St. Joseph’s teens eventually started a club called “Open Arms,” after Ontario’s Catholic bishops and school trustees bowed to public pressure and allowed groups to address bullying based on sexual orientation.)
Jacques retired at the end of the 2010-11 school year as planned but is still a member of the teachers’ college.
McCue’s complaint also asks the college to examine if Jacques failed to maintain the standards of the profession, because without a gay-straight alliance support group “to address issues of bullying, some students may feel that their emotional well-being was being compromised.”
“In any case, given the recent suicide at an Ottawa Carleton District (board) school as well as a spate of other horrible incidents around North America, it is time that this issue be taken seriously,” he wrote in his complaint.
“There is a book and video entitled It gets Better. The understanding is that once a (gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender) student makes it to adulthood, life gets better. This is all fine and good, but it needs to get better now, not in four years.”
The complaint, sent to the college last November, includes several studies showing the importance of safe, supportive social environments for gay and lesbian teens.
“The studies clearly indicate that a ‘diversity club’ is insufficient to properly address the unique issues facing gay and lesbian youth,” McCue wrote.
The college has 120 days to investigate and determine whether to proceed to a disciplinary hearing.
“Our legislation prohibits us from talking about a matter until it reaches the stage of a formal hearing,” said Brian Jamieson of the Ontario College of Teachers. “I cannot confirm or deny whether a complaint has been registered, and we are not allowed to discuss matters under investigation.”
Bruce Campbell, of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, said no one at the board was aware of the case and that, regardless, he could not respond “due to the personnel-related nature of such a complaint.”
He contacted Jacques twice on the Star’s behalf; she said she had not been contacted by the college. “She has not been advised of this and did not wish to comment on it,” Campbell also said.
McCue taught in Ottawa public schools before moving to Montreal in 2007. He grew up in Barrie.
“I kind of felt sick to my stomach” after reading that St. Joseph students had been denied, especially after they were brave enough to ask for — and then publicly fight for — a gay-straight alliance at such a young age, he said.
“It’s clear in Ontario College of Teacher regulations that you can’t put students at increased risk,” said McCue, 41.
The question is if this is “conduct unbecoming a member,” he added. “Would most members consider this not to be proper?”
Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, director of the equality program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said her organization has not taken a position on the case because it is not familiar with the college’s disciplinary process.
However, she said she will follow its progress.
“It is one of the many ways people are expressing their concern with the fact that students were not provided with the supports they need,” she said.
“It’s a very interesting take (on the issue).”
The incident at St. Joseph’s highlighted the difficulty facing Catholic schools as the province looked at ways to fight homophobia, something students — in both Catholic and public schools — have said they want.
Since then, the Ontario government has directed schools to allow anti-homophobia clubs if students demand them, although the word “gay” does not have to be in their title.
Just last week, Catholic educators suggested calling such groups “Respecting Difference,” but said the groups could not be activist, protest or discuss sexual attraction or gender identity.
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Comments posted on TheStar.com by St Joe's students ....
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amandaann: you have GOT to be kidding me.... a CATHOLIC school teacher cannot say on record that they console of a gay-straight alliance. they have to speak on the behalf of the school board. clearly this article is BEYOND bias. i went to St. Joes and i have NEVER met a nicer, kinder woman in my life. Francis let us students have the club, she let us feel loved and appreciated. reading this article makes me SICK and disgusted that you would make her look like a monster when she is nothing but an open soul.
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BadWolf07: You're going after the wrong person
I'm a student at St Joes, I was involved in trying to start a gay-straight alliance, and although that I agree she may have done some things that put some students at additional risk, but I don't think it was because she was hateful and intolerant in any way. The banning of gay-straight alliances in Catholic schools is a board-wide, if not province-wide issue. Ms Jacques is a really nice person and the greatest principal we ever had. She felt bad for what she had to do about our GSA (she cried at a meeting once, she was so upset). She was always there to help, and I really don't think she should be pulled out or retirement and punished for something she did out of ignorance or because the board instructed her to.
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