School boards and administrators around the province are scrambling to make sure their policies align with a government bill supporting diversity in schools.![]()
Bill 10 would allow gay-straight alliances to be created at any Alberta schools where the students request them.
"I think in some ways there's been a lot of negative about what this could look like or might look like," commented Golden Hills School Division (GHSD) superintendent, Bevan Daverne. "I think that the conversations we're having, many people have found to be reassuring."
Daverne and other admininistration from the school division office in Strathmore are touring division schools to explain their draft policy.
"Certainly the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender or questioning) is one (issue), but there's also lots of other things too," he told 99.5 Drum FM. "We have minority groups, we have students that have mental health challenges, we have students that have issues around their own view of their bodies, so we need to be able to support kids in lots of different ways."
Daverne has already met with parents of children at Acme and Standard Schools. He's scheduled to be at Strathmore High this evening (Mar. 3) at 7:00 p.m. Further parent meetings are planned for Three Hills and DVSS in Drumheller on March 7 and 8 respectively.
"(I want) what's going to be best for all of our students, what's going to be best to support that particular student and to have an approach that also involves family and parents, to work through something that everybody can feel comfortable with."
A schedule of the GHSD Bill 10 community meetings, along with the school division's draft policy, can be found here.
