Slouching to An End

In the late 1980s I was hired to teach religion at The York Catholic District School Board.  I was educated at Catholic elementary and high schools and at St. Michael's College at University of Toronto.   I spent 30 years teaching in the board that now sits at the center of a national, if not international, storm around the refusal to raise the Pride flag above its offices and its schools. In 2017, the year I retired, I wrote this blog about my experiences as a teacher and in it, I included an entry warning of the storm clouds ahead for the Catholic system.  Now it slouches to its end in disgrace.

Perhaps there are readers who think that the refusal to raise the Pride flag is a one off, that it is merely a reflection of a growing backlash to "wokeness." Or maybe you believe that the board has taken a principled stand.  This is not the case. 

The YCDSB, like all of Ontario's publicly funded Catholic Boards, have been on a long journey to this point.  There have been many stops along the way.   The firing of pregnant women in the '60s instead of granting maternity leaves. The insistence of hiring only Catholic teachers and administrators, their Catholicity verified by predatory priests. The intimidation of teachers throughout the '70s and 80's for having the temerity to end their marriages and wishing to remarry.  Warnings to teachers who lived common law to keep it quiet. At the height of the AIDS epidemic, a refusal to properly educate high school students in the use of condoms.  The dismissal of gay teachers for daring to have a civil union in the '90s, the many years of  "don't ask, don't tell" when it came to teachers with same sex partners, who were so intimidated that their partners did not attend graduations, retirements and staff celebrations. The unwillingness to address issues arising from gender.

And now we are here.  Unable to accept the differences of others, unable to celebrate all students and to only tolerate differences, quietly, with a whiff of shame; never in the glory of a June spring breeze at the top of a flagpole.

The Catholic boards, their directors, their superintendents,  their consultants, their administrators, have tried to wrestle with the baked in hypocrisy of a publicly funded Catholic school system. I've seen it in action.  The province demands an AIDS curriculum?  Sure, but just don't say condom until a student asks.  The province legislates meaningful indigenous education? Sure, but be sure to say a Catholic prayer before and after the smudge ceremony.  The province mandates gender inclusivity and acceptance of all people in all their expressions?  Sure, but do it quietly behind closed doors and be aware of who is watching. Make sure you can remove your Pride sticker from the classroom door, if you share it with a certain teacher.

The professional staffs, and certainly their dedicated teachers have tried for decades to keep the system a float, using their wit and professional judgement to try and bridge the gap between what it is to be Catholic and what it means to have public funding.  But it is now a bridge too far. They could not fend off the zealots, the bigots, who stormed the YCDSB meetings, could not think strategically to avoid the debacle they now own and could not corral trustees better suited to governing a school system in 1723 than 2023.

It's time to end the charade.  Fold the Catholic system into the public one.  Free those teachers from this hypocrisy.  Most of all, protect and educate our young people and help them become citizens with a clear vision of equity, inclusivity and fairness.