Parental Rights And The “New Residential School” System
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Parental Rights And The “New Residential School” System
Parental rights have been an on-again, off-again issue for decades and as the culture war has heated up, it is not surprising to see them once again in the news in both Canada and the United States. In both countries, the latest iteration of the parental rights discussion largely concerns the issue of transgenderism and the public school system.
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In both countries, evidence has arisen that many schools are implementing rules enabling children to pick their gender/preferred pronoun, go by a different name from their legal/birth name, and, with the aid of the school, keep this information a secret from their parents.
Demands that parents be kept informed are framed on the left as “putting kids at risk” and as a far-right reaction to “inclusivity,” while on the right “hiding” information from parents is seen as “trampling parental rights.” I will admit at the outset that I find it difficult to present this debate in an unbiased manner as it is blatantly clear to me that the position of the left is completely wrong.
The issue with the left’s position is not their concern for children’s wellbeing. No one would argue that protecting children isn’t a worthwhile goal nor that children have rights that must be balanced against those of their parents.
However, children are commonly understood to lack the maturity to exercise the full range of rights granted to adults, including voting and making their own medical decisions, and consequently, parents are understood to have the authority to make decisions for them.
In fact, many school activities require parental authority including enrolling, participating in sports, and going on field trips. The issue with the left’s argument is that it usurps parental authority based on a presupposition that governments/schools better understand a child’s needs than a parent.
This runs counter to our common understanding of parental and school responsibilities. We do not permit schools to instill religious beliefs in children that differ from those of the parents but instead restrict schools to educating students on topics that are concrete such as science, math, reading, etc.
Transgenderism and the associated array of pronouns are at best an unsettled issue, at worst they are the tenets of an anti-enlightenment cult. As such, the decision by schools and governments to treat the issue on par with biology and sexual reproduction is a move beyond education into indoctrination.
In Canada, there is a certain irony to the actions of the schools and government that is only apparent if one contrasts their efforts against the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). For those unfamiliar with the topic, the commission was established to document the history and impacts of the Canadian Indian Residential School System on Indigenous students and their families.
The residential schools were a network of "boarding schools" for Native Canadians that ran from 1879 until 1997, were funded by the government, and had a policy “to remove children from the influence of their families and culture and assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture.”
The TRC was only one component of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA), the others being the Common Experience Payment (CEP), the Independent Assessment Process, the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF), and the Commemoration Fund with combined awards of approximately $5.5 billion ($4.15 billion USD).
This does not include payments made by the Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian, and United churches which were all involved in the residential schools. In addition to the various cash settlements, the Canadian government has apologized for this historic wrong on many occasions including:
MAY 2004 - Apology from former RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli for the RCMP's involvement in residential schools
JUNE 2008 - Statement of apology to former students of Indian residential schools from then Prime Minister Stephen Harper
MARCH 2014 - Apology from Bob Paulson, RCMP commissioner, to people affected by the Indian residential school system
JUNE 2015 - Apology to residential school survivors from former Alberta Premier Rachel Notley
MAY 2016 - Apology to Indigenous peoples from former Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne
Perhaps the irony of the government’s approach to transgenderism and parental rights is becoming clearer. If not irony, then at the very least an inability on the part of politicians to learn from history. While the new approach of the schools is not physically removing children from their families, by keeping secrets from parents it is emotionally distancing children from parents and setting the schools up as surrogate parents.
It is also assimilating them into an approved culture, often in opposition to parental desires. Emotional surrogacy, the usurpation of parental rights, and the indoctrination of children into cultural beliefs not of their parents’ choosing are the foundation of this “New Residential School” system.
We are beginning to see a pushback against transgenderism and the belief that you are whatever gender you feel yourself to be. At the moment it is restricted to the limitation of puberty blockers in Europe and the legal actions of detransitioners in Canada and the United States who have been permanently damaged by surgeries undertaken in their youth. While changing a name, using a different pronoun, or identifying by a sex one wasn’t born as will not have lasting physical impacts, one can imagine that there may be long-term mental health effects.
The likelihood is even greater if schools encourage this behavior when studies have shown that most “children grow out of their gender dysphoria as they reach adolescence.” If and when harm does begin to surface and students begin to sue the government, it will be the taxpayers, not the politicians, who pay the price. The taxpayers and the children and families harmed by schools which have once again waded into an area where they are neither needed nor wanted.
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