Higgs’s attack on sex-education talk part of his political strategy, academics say

Two education professors at the University of New Brunswick say the premier’s recent push against a sexual health presentation in high schools is at least partly motivated by political aims.

Casey Burkholder and Ken Brien say Premier Blaine Higgs is making hay of the issue ahead of a fall provincial election in which he is expected to make “parental rights” a key part of his platform. Burkholder said teachers feel uneasy and unsafe teaching sexual education, despite it being part of the regular high school curriculum.

“We don’t see that in mathematics, we don’t see that in physical education,” she said in an interview. “But then, there is that fear in sexuality education, because of the kind of political manoeuvring that we see the premier and the education minister engaging in.”

On May 24, Higgs shared on social media a slide from a sexual health presentation that included questions such as, “Do girls masturbate?” and “Is it good or bad to do anal?” He said the material was “clearly inappropriate” and he wrote that the group behind it, HPV Global Action, would not be allowed to present at schools in the province, “effective immediately.”

The group walked reporters through the presentation on Friday. The slide shared by Higgs was the first of more than 100 in the talk, called Healthy Relationships 101, and it was meant to be attention-grabbing, said Teresa Norris, HPV Global Action’s president. It was also meant to show teens that such questions are normal, and that her presentation would give them the information they need to find answers, she said.

The presentation discusses healthy and unhealthy friendships and relationship behaviour, sexuality and puberty, consent, abstinence and sexually transmitted infections.

Steve Outhouse, a spokesperson for Higgs, said the main issue was that parents were not given any notification about the presentation, nor an opportunity to weigh in on its content.

“This is being spun out into political attacks to say that we’re opposed to sex education. That’s not the case,” he said in an interview. “There are questions about whether material is properly vetted before it goes in for presentations of this nature. We believe that is absolutely a fair question to ask.”

Norris told reporters she has been delivering variations of the presentation to schools in New Brunswick for years, and to schools across Canada for more than two decades. Education officials — who could be teachers, principals or school board representatives — sign a consent form allowing HPV Global to present, and they sign after they have read a detailed outline of the presentation, she said.

Outhouse said government officials have a meeting scheduled with the group later this week.

Brien said he expects “every little thing” that comes up in education will likely be politicized, as the Progressive Conservative government gears up for an election in which “parental rights” is expected to be a main topic. The term surfaced in Canada as New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Alberta implemented policies on gender identity in schools requiring parental consent before teachers could use different names and pronouns of younger students.

Burkholder said she believes Higgs is trying to stoke a “culture war,” in order to distract from more pressing issues, including health care and housing.

Shoshanna Wingate, a parent of a high school student in Sackville, N.B., said she feels Higgs is using “parental rights” as a “dog whistle” to drum up support for anti-LGBTQ+ policies in schools, and to erode support for sexual education. “I am very concerned by the premier’s relentless attacks on our education system,” she said in an email, adding that the real problems in schools are a result of underfunding.

Sandra Byers, a UNB psychology professor who studies parents’ attitudes toward sex education, said her work has shown the majority of parents in the province want their kids to learn about sexuality and sexual health.

However, a 2020 survey of teachers she conducted revealed that many of them are teaching sex education — which is part of the high school curriculum — without adequate training or support. Teachers already worry they won’t be supported by the administration or that they’ll face blowback from parents, and some have reported that they don’t teach the entire sexual education curriculum, Byers said.

Outhouse said the Higgs government is not opposed to sex education, but the talk in schools last month has raised questions about vetting of third-party presenters.

In the upcoming fall election, which must be held by Oct. 21, “we will unapologetically be standing up for parents’ ability to be involved in the education of their children. That is absolutely going to be a pillar of this government,” Outhouse said. “We will be ready with a platform that’s going to deal with the cost of living, health care and other items that are important to New Brunswickers.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2024.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press