Parental complaints alleging schools kept pronouns secret 'do not exist': Department of Education

A right to information response received by a University of New Brunswick professor shows that from 2020 to May 25, 2023, the Department of Education received no complaints from parents alleging the school was keeping them in the dark about their children's preferred pronouns.

"The response that I received was enough reason to indicate that there really was no valid reason to begin this review in the first place," said education professor and former teacher Melissa Dockrill Garrett.

In June, New Brunswick Education Minister Bill Hogan announced changes to Policy 713, which outlines minimum requirements for LGBTQ student safety.

He said the policy amounted to "keeping secrets" from parents because it empowered school officials to use a child's chosen name or pronoun informally, regardless of parental consent, and only required that consent for official changes in school records.

Hogan said he received hundreds of complaints about the policy. Premier Blaine Higgs has said that number is now in the thousands.

Garrett said she filed the request because she wanted to see the complaints that were cited by the premier and the education minister as a justification for changing the policy.

"I just could not believe that in 2023 that these were discussions that we were continuing to have," she said. "Had there been evidence of complaints, perhaps then there would have been grounds to ... at least continue with consultation."

Garrett said as a former teacher of 11 years, she knew that no one was keeping secrets from parents. But she was still surprised that there were zero complaints about something Higgs and Hogan said was a problem demanding a solution.

"I had a feeling that the review and the alleged complaints were unjustified, but I was still very surprised to see it in writing," Garrett said.

CBC News has requested an interview with Hogan and is awaiting a response.

Garrett said her request asked for all complaints from parents "who were concerned that they were not contacted" by schools about their children using a new name or pronoun. The response landed in her inbox this week. Her request was refused "because the records do not exist."

"The department ... has no written complaints," of the nature she requested, the response says. 

Garrett said she asked for "all complaints," not just those in writing.

The original policy made it mandatory to respect a child under 16's chosen name and pronoun, informally, and to only seek consent from parents if the child wants the change to be official in school records.