School psychologists file grievances over revised LGBTQ policy

Unionized school psychologists and social workers have filed two grievances with the New Brunswick government over changes to a policy protecting LGBTQ students, saying the changes would make them complicit in harming children.

Education Minister Bill Hogan recently announced the changes to Policy 713, which outlines basic protections to LGBTQ students in school.

Hogan said the revised policy now makes it mandatory to get parental consent before using a child under 16's chosen name and pronoun, even verbally, in school. A child who says no to involving their parents should be referred to a school psychologist or social worker to come up with a plan to include those parents, he said.

But those psychologists and social workers say they were not consulted, don't approve of the changes and refuse to participate in what's being asked.

The New Brunswick Association of School Psychologists said the new policy will hurt students.

"Misgendering transgender and gender diverse people increases risk of self-harm, suicidal ideation, and other mental health concerns," the association said Friday in a statement.

"School psychologists will not be complicit in creating harm by deadnaming and misgendering the students with whom we work."

The grievances were filed with the Education Department on Friday by the New Brunswick Union of Public and Private Employees, which has members in all francophone and anglophone school districts.

The first grievance is aimed at the policy in general. It says the policy is not reasonable or clear.

"It is unclear whether employees are required to misgender students under the age of 16 in the absence of parental consent … while the process of acquiring parental consent is ongoing," the grievance says. "This leaves employees not knowing if they may be disciplined for extending the basic decency of preferred name and pronoun(s) usage to those students."

The revised section of the policy is also not reasonable because it "requires school social workers and school psychologists to act in a manner that is contrary to their respective legal and ethical responsibilities."

This grievance also points to other parts of Policy 713 and other departmental policies that conflict with the new changes.

The union is asking the original policy be restored with respect to psychologists and social workers. The changes are scheduled to come into effect on July 1.

The second grievance points to Hogan's words in news interviews.