Sask. government's decision to limit sexual health education leaves students unprepared: educators

Professionals who are trained to teach young people about appropriate relationships and sexual health say the Saskatchewan government is setting youth up for failure by banning organizations from partnering with local schools and teachers in the classroom.

In August, the government issued a "temporary directive" that banned third-party educators from presenting on sexual health education. Four months later, the ban remains and there's no indication it will be lifted.

"The temporary directive is still in effect and continues to be reviewed," said Mitchell Blair, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, in a statement to CBC.

Educators fear the government's decision will result in higher provincial rates of sexual violence, unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections or disease.

"There's so much research and evidence that shows that consent-based education is imperative to lowering rates of sexualized violence," said Morgan Price, the education and outreach co-ordinator at the Saskatoon Sexual Assault and Information Centre (SSAIC), which is now banned from working in schools. 

"Saskatchewan has some of the highest rates of sexualized violence, particularly in youth, so of course it's devastating."

This would have been SSAIC's 18th year partnered with Saskatoon's public and Catholic school divisions to run programs for teachers and students.

For 2023, SSAIC projected it would reach 3,850 Grade 7 and 8 students with its "No is a Full Sentence" program.

"No is a Full Sentence" is a sexual-violence education and prevention program aimed at youth in Grade 8. It involves lesson plans for teachers about consent, boundaries and healthy relationships paired, as well as a SSAIC presentation.

"Since we're the experts on sexualized-violence, we [used to] come in and give that guest presentation," Price said.

Instead, SSAIC only reached 258 youth in 2023 through community sessions offered outside of school hours.   

Price said it's a good thing that SSAIC is still reaching some young people in the community and has also been able to host education sessions for caregivers. But Price said it is disappointing the reach is so limited. She said the youth whose parents bring them to their sessions are most likely not the youth who need to hear their message.

For example, sexually abusive caregivers likely won't bring their kids to a session about preventing violence, so those children may never learn that what's happening to them is wrong.

Price said SSAIC won't stop advocating to get back into Saskatchewan classrooms.