New LGBTQ school policy does not ban informal pronoun changes, experts say
CBC
Teachers and school staff are facing a conundrum: the minister of education says it's now forbidden to respect a child under 16's chosen name and pronoun, even informally or verbally, without parental consent.
But the changes he introduced to the policy on gender identity are not as explicit.
So should employees follow the written policy or the minister?
Child and youth advocate Kelly Lamrock said when in doubt, the policy prevails.
"Law doesn't really work like that. If you're serious, you put it in the policy," said Lamrock, a lawyer and former education minister.
"Saying it in an interview, he might as well be hollering into the speaker at a Starbucks drive-thru. It doesn't really have any legal impact."
Lamrock said his office will be preparing a document based on established law to guide teachers. That document can also be used as a defence if any teacher faces repercussions for respecting a child's expression of gender identity.
"There are legal issues as to what you owe children for privacy, or respect for them, in daily interactions."
Gender identity and expression are also protected under the federal and provincial Human Rights Acts.
The province introduced controversial changes to Policy 713, which sets out minimum standards for providing a safe learning environment for LGBTQ students, last week.
Lamrock released a report this week calling for the reversal of all changes as some of them are "inadvertently discriminatory."
The New Brunswick Teachers' Association, the New Brunswick Women's Council, the union representing school psychologists and a human rights expert have all said they don't see a ban in the way the changes are worded in Policy 713.
The policy previously made it mandatory for teachers to respect a child's chosen name and pronoun verbally, even if the parents hadn't been consulted.
That section is gone, and it has not been replaced by any other rules about what teachers should do when a student requests to be verbally referred to by a different name or pronoun.