School districts doing good things.

I saw two articles yesterday that described ways that some local BC school districts doing good things in response to political and religious conflicts. The first situation took place on Vancouver Island, and the second took place in Surrey. I have a couple personal connections to both cases.

​On Vancouver Island,some school districts have severed ties with Camp Qwanoes due to the organization's stance on homosexuality. This is justified on the school districts' parts; school districts should not associate with organizations with such inequitous policies.

I attended Camp Qwanoes as a camper in the 1990s and worked as staff there for the summers of 1996-2001. It was during my time there that they instituted the code of ethics form that was a long ream of things you had to agree with to work there. I remember being uncomfortable signing the form, simply because its litany of rules seemed to be over-reaching. It set rules about what music staff could listen to, beliefs about homosexuality, involvement in a church outside of camp, and numerous other rules that seemed a little over-the-top. However, being raised in that environment made it easy to sign the form, even with reservations. The camp was fun to work at and I was pretty straight-edge, so it was easy to sign the form even if it seemed excessive. 

Still, by the time 2002 rolled around, I felt good never having to sign that form again. By then, my faith had grown pretty liberal: I may have been uncomfortable with homosexuality, but I knew that it wasn't any of my business to condemn it; I may not have been comfortable with abortion, but I knew that the arguments for its legalization far outweighed the other side's arguments; I was deeply troubled by trying to justify complex and arbitrary theological stances on the atonement, salvation by grace, Biblical inerrancy, and the Trinity. By that point, signing that form seemed to be out of the question.

Today, I think the camp's code of ethics essentially makes a bunch of teenagers (most of their employees are teenagers) agree to hatred, and I'm appalled by that. So I'm glad that some districts are severing ties with the camp. School districts shouldn't be giving funds to organizations that promote hatred, no matter what the camp director says is within their "rights." 

Closer to home, the Surrey School District cancelled a rental of district space to a non-binding Khalistan voting event. This is something I'm also in support of. I currently work for the Surrey School District and don't want my public occupation to be associated with political-religious issues like that.

Specifically, the fuss is over a poster: "the cancellation was due to a promotional poster that showed an AK-47 assault rifle being stabbed by a pen below an image of the school in Newton." The district has said, "As a school district, our primary mission is to provide quality education and support to our students and ensure a safe environment for our school communities. Our agreements, policies and guidelines, including those for rentals, support our district in creating a safe environment for our community. Anyone renting our facilities must adhere to this." 

I think this is an important stand for the district to take. The posters and the event are clearly political and religious in nature and the district should have nothing to do with events that might cause a religious or political ruckus. There's no need for that level of tension in public school districts. 

So I'm a little proud right now to be working as a public educator in British Columbia. The system isn't perfect, not at all, but at least some districts can take a stand for neutrality and equality. Good stuff.

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UPDATE SEPTEMBER 15 2023: Monocle Radio's The Foreign Desk, one of my favorite news shows to listen to, recently posted a great short "explainer" that mentions the referendum I mentioned in this post. I think it's crazy to think that sites I drive past almost every day are the centre of international news.