The recent feud between the Prince George District Teachers’ Association (PGDTA) and the SD57 School Board is still going strong.
It all started after December 13th’s school board meeting – the first real meeting for the new board since the fall election.
The response from board chair Rachael Weber after a member of the public spoke struck a chord with PGDTA president Daryl Beauregard.
The man spoke about a number of things, some of which included accusations that cases of abuse between teachers and students are up in School District 57, as well as the number of kids with “psychological issues” and who are “confused about their gender.”
When he finished, Weber responded, saying “it takes great courage to come to the mic and say what you did tonight, you were heard. Thank you for taking time from your life to come tonight to make sure that we listened.”
After the December 13th meeting, Beauregard sent a letter to Weber and the school board, then addressed those concerns in person on the January 31st meeting.
You can find that full story here.
Today (Friday) he told My PG Now that he has not received any sort of response from the district or board at this point.
“I still haven’t seen any effort by this board to address the concerns about the public showing up and attacking teachers for doing our job,” Beauregard said.
Because of this, he has sent a second letter to the board that you can find here.
In it, Beauregard calls the comments made by the speaker in December’s meeting “inflammatory and offensive.”
He has yet to receive a response to this letter either – however it was only sent yesterday.
He made clear it is a Ministry of Education requirement to teach and adhere to the sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) policy.
“That is our work. We are their employees, and they have a responsibility to protect us in this work.”
“Right now, I have members of my union contacting me, [saying] that they feel unsafe to work in this district,” he said.
“They themselves are LGBTQ+ and they are stating ‘we feel unsafe based on what has happened.'”
This is not just because of one person’s statements into an open mic at a meeting.
Beauregard said the sentiment that SOGI and other LGBTQ+ or sexual health centered education is actually grooming children, or is in some way abusive, has been growing in online discourse – and he confirmed face-to-face encounters in the district have also been reported.
“We need the employer to protect their safety,” he said.
“Whether that is making sure nobody is in a parking lot bothering our members when they exit a public meeting” – which briefly happened to Beauregard following the January 31st board meeting – “to making sure when we show up to school that we are not being accused of abusing kids.”
He said it is one thing for himself, the union president, to speak up at meetings and write these letters.
“It is quite another thing to be working in a classroom [as] a member of the LGBTQ+ community and doing this work, and feeling extremely vulnerable because members of the community are able to say these things without any response other than praise and thanks, meanwhile go to work next day… feeling very unsafe.”
Beauregard said he would like to sit down and have a meeting between members of the school board and members of his union to make sure employees from the school district feel safe to teach what is required by the provincial government.
This issue is not unique to SD57.
Beauregard said he has heard reports from other union presidents in Vanderhoof, Chilliwack, and Abbotsford – “there is a list.”
“My members show up to work every single day,” he said in closing, “they work very hard to make sure students receive an education that is inclusive and equitable, and that values diversity. We just want to be able to do that work without feeling unsafe.”
My PG Now reached out to Rachael Weber for comment and has not received a response at this time.