Catholic Board says not much will change
Posted Jun 5, 2012 04:33:15 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Bill 13, also known as the Accepting Schools Act, passed third and final reading in the Ontario legislature, Tuesday, but it’s expected that the act won’t change a whole lot at the region’s Catholic Board.
The act involves telling schools they must allow students to form clubs called gay-straight alliances.
There are already supports in place for students who identify as homosexual, such as a group called PRISM, which stands for Pride and Respect for Individuals of a Sexual Minority, at St. Mary’s High school.
Similar clubs at other schools in the Waterloo Region Catholic District School Board are in the process of forming.
Spokesperson John Shewchuk tells 570 News, “The work that’s been going on in the schools and the interaction between staff and students and among students themselves is going to remain pretty much the same. We’ve been doing the work all along and have been having great success in dealing with gay students and students of a sexual minority.”
Shewchuk says the biggest change the new act makes is that schools are now legislatively responsible to let students request the club is called specifically a gay-straight alliance.
