‘Shocking ignorance:’ Director of sex assault centre worried about changes in classrooms

The head of a centre working to prevent sexual violence is deeply concerned about changes in Saskatchewan’s classrooms.

There’s been a lot of frustration in the past couple days around the provincial government’s decision to require parents to be informed when a child changes their name or pronouns in schools, but the head of the Regina Sexual Assault Centre (RSAC) is worried about one of the other changes to classrooms announced this week.

On Tuesday, Education Minister Dustin Duncan announced that parents will now need to be told about what’s going to be taught in sex education and can remove their kids if they wish. Third-party presenters are also now banned from the sex ed classrooms, with the exception of health authority or ministry presenters.

While the centre doesn’t present sexual education materials to students, RSAC executive director Lisa Miller is worried that her organization will be lumped in, and won’t be allowed to make presentations in Saskatchewan classrooms any longer.

The centre teaches about consent, healthy relationships, sexual violence and preventing violence in age- and sector-appropriate ways. It also has a puppet-based violence and abuse prevention program for kids aged five to 11.

Miller said research shows education is fundamental in violence prevention.

“When we hear from students and educators whom RSAC has worked with, the message is clear – violence prevention education is valuable. When I hear that the impact of our presence was their empowerment in personal safety and health, I am deeply concerned about what is lost if we cannot continue to do this work,” said Miller in a statement.

The statement noted that the centre has never received negative feedback on its presentations from either teachers or parents.

“We take pride in the trusting relationships we have built with schools and administration and work collaboratively with them to ensure our programs assist in meeting curricular outcomes,” the centre’s statement read.

“This work now appears to be at risk and it is heartbreaking.”

The centre’s statement said staff are disappointed and deeply concerned with the new policies in Saskatchewan, particularly that they were brought in without any apparent consultation with teachers or mental-health experts.

“The Minister’s decision displays a shocking ignorance of the challenges and risk that have been created,” the centre’s statement said.

RSAC pointed out that Saskatchewan has some of the highest rates of sexual assault in Canada.

“We are deeply committed to ensuring our precious children have access to abuse-prevention information – information that has been and always will be child-friendly and appropriate,” read the release.

“It is tragic that parental consent may be needed for children to receive this information because, statistically, children are abused in their home and abusive family members may now have the ability to opt out. The impact of that is clear.”