The word 'family' has caused controversy for this Ontario school board. Here's why
CBC
The Waterloo Region District School Board has been talking a lot about the word "family" this month.
The board has released two separate statements so far in June after media reports and rumours circulated online that teachers were being taught the word "family" is racist.
It stems from a professional development day training session in November 2023 when teachers from Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School near Baden, Ont., discussed several words and what they meant to students, the school board says.
Screengrabs from a presentation called "Dismantling Whiteness at W-O: Words Matter" have appeared on alternative media sites such as Juno News and Rebel News. The photo of a slide show presentation shows that the word family has been "identified as harmful by our racialized students."
The Juno News headline reads: "School board trains staff that the term 'family' is harmful, racist."
In a video report, which was posted to YouTube on June 6, Rebel News senior editor Tamara Ugolini was critical of the board.
"When someone's telling you that the term 'family' is rooted in white supremacy and to dismantle the family unit because it's rooted in patriarchy, you can tell them where to go," Ugolini says on the video.
Maedith Radlein, chair of the Waterloo Region District School Board, says the training materials reprinted by those media outlets were shared out of context "and interpreted incorrectly."
"That screenshot was interpreted to mean that what was being said was that we are against family. That screenshot was, in fact, part of a larger presentation that was a discussion about language," Radlein told CBC K-W's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris on Wednesday.
Radlein says people have been emailing board staff and trustees and "are, of course, very upset because if that was indeed a message it would be something to be very concerned about."
"I would like to unequivocally state that that is not our message. We value families and we work with them every day as we seek to help their students achieve and enjoy their school experience," she said.
LISTEN | Waterloo Region District School Board chair discusses controversy over the word 'family':
The school board issued its first statement on June 6, stating they were aware of the media reports and wanted to clarify and provide context around what had been reported.
"The session explored how different communities may experience public institutions differently, and how educators can be thoughtful and inclusive in their communication," the statement said.
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