Saskatchewan mother plans human rights complaint over school policy changes

Saskatoon’s Fran Forsberg is no stranger to a fight, having gone to court — multiple times — in past years to argue for her kids’ rights.

Now she’s planning to do it again.

Forsberg was part of a group of parents who fought in court to have gender taken off Saskatchewan birth certificates, allowing people under 18 to apply for a change to the gender on their certificates. She has two transgender children, one of whom was a key part of that fight.

Now, Forsberg is gearing up again after the provincial government announced policy changes for schools earlier this week.

The changes include allowing parents to take kids out of sex education classes, banning third parties from making sex ed presentations, and requiring parental consent before the name or pronoun of a child under 16 can be changed at school.

The government clarified on Thursday that the policy requiring parental consent would apply on school documents as well as anytime the student requests their preferred name and pronouns be used in a school setting.

Forsberg said when she heard about the changes, she felt like the province was in a time warp.

“I cannot believe it. I’m just disgusted, just disgusted. This government, they’re not concerned about the safety and well-being of children or they wouldn’t have done it,” she said, adding she believes the government is pandering to the far political right.

She believes the move smacks of bigotry, homophobia and transphobia.

Forsberg quoted statistics that gender and sexually diverse children are more likely to self-harm, have mental health issues and have physical issues. She added that those numbers go down drastically when the kids have support, either at home or at school.

“Not all children do have the support at home and they need that support from a teacher or friends at school and this is just outing them. It’s disgusting,” she said.

When asked about the argument that this is supporting parents’ rights, Forsberg wondered about the rights of the child.

She plans to file a human rights complaint Monday and she believes there will be a lot of other parents behind her.

“The government (and) the education system, I mean they talk about, ‘Oh, we’re safe and we’re inclusive.’ They’re not following their own mandate. It’s ridiculous,” she said.

Forsberg also has a bone to pick with the policy changes around removing third parties from sex ed and allowing parents to opt their kids out of it.

“That’s just ludicrous. You can have those conversations at home (and) do what you want with that, but I don’t know anybody that has ever been harmed by having too much education – quite the contrary,” she said.

Forsberg said that if people are ignorant, she wondered how they’re going to have the knowledge to make decisions – pointing to Saskatchewan’s high rates of syphilis, STIs and unwanted pregnancies.

Forsberg has organized a rally in Saskatoon this weekend to protest the policy change.

— With files from The Canadian Press