Boo Hoo, Boo Hoo Hoo If some "fearless" nuns were telling kids to sign something in support of infantacide the same whiners would be praising them instead of whining.
Posted on 04/24/2012 6:39:15 AM PDT by Cronos
eachers at a Mississauga Catholic school have encouraged students to sign a petition supporting a Conservative politician’s bid to redefine when life begins, sparking outrage from secular groups and questions about the role of teachers in exploring controversial issues.
All teachers at St. Joseph Secondary School got an email last week from an unidentified teacher asking teachers and students to support a Life Canada petition for Motion 312, a proposal from Stephen Woodworth, MP for Kitchener Centre that could lead to criminalizing abortion. “No one was forced to sign anything, it was presented as an option,” said Bruce Campbell, spokesperson for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board. He could not say how many teachers presented the petition to students.
“Teachers in a classroom asking students to do something directly political . . . to me that crosses a line,” said Annie Kidder, executive director of advocacy group People for Education.
“Teachers always bring who they are and what they believe in to classrooms and I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. Classrooms are great places to discuss many things, but that is different from saying, ‘I encourage you to sign a petition.’ ”
That a Catholic school teacher has encouraged colleagues and students to take part in such a petition shouldn’t come as a surprise, since students and staff are involved in “various social justice causes,” said Campbell.
There are 1,700 students enrolled at the high school, where last year student Leanne Iskander was prevented from starting a gay-straight alliance (GSA).
“Pro-life, right-to-life, is part and parcel of the catechism of the faith, which affirms life from conception to natural death,” said Campbell. “So, certainly we support students and staff in engaging in marching and awareness around that issue.”
But secular groups say this should not happen in publicly-funded institutions.
“We’re pretty offended by it,” said Greg Oliver, president of the Canadian Secular Alliance, a group that supports separation of church and state. “It just raises the question again: is this the sort of thing that taxpayers should be funding?
“Individual students have the right to hold whatever opinion they come to independently,” Oliver said in a telephone interview, “but this is a case of a publicly-funded school system essentially using these children, either indoctrinating them, or using them as a political tool, to advance certain opinions.”
But Mary Ellen Douglas, Ontario president of the Campaign Life Coalition says teachers in Catholic schools should be encouraging students to take action in keeping with their Catholic values.
“This is the moral issue of the century,” she said. “I’d be surprised if they didn’t do this.”
Hmmm... but they have no issue about teachers exploring controversial issues like being pro-abortion, pro-gay "marriages" etc. etc.
This is a controversy??
but PUBLIC SCHOOLS teaching all kinds of crap is just fine??
Hello?
It’s a CATHOLIC school!
People pay money to send their children there, even AFTER paying exorbitant taxes for the government school collective which they cannot use, since it is antithetical to their faith.
These would be the same secular groups who see nothing wrong with teacher forcing classes to attend union protests and encouring studants to attend OWS rallies.
“We’re pretty offended by it,” said Greg Oliver, president of the Canadian Secular Alliance, a group that supports separation of church and state. “It just raises the question again: is this the sort of thing that taxpayers should be funding?
Read the article. This is in Canada. Public money goes to the Catholic schools.
Its a Catholic school. I’m guessing they also impose their religion on the kids.
SnakeDoc
Boo Hoo, Boo Hoo Hoo If some "fearless" nuns were telling kids to sign something in support of infantacide the same whiners would be praising them instead of whining.
So?
And this is why it’s getting harder to distinguish between “real” news and satire!
The hypocracy is obvious.
Fortunately Catholics and Christians in general are fighting back.
> Public money goes to the Catholic schools.
Are Catholics a part of the Canadian Public?
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Since when are Catholic schools *publicly funded institutions*?
Are they really stupid enough to think that people aren't going to notice that they are objecting to something done in a CATHOLIC high school?
What taxpayer dollars are funding this school?
This is unintentionally hilarious.
Exactly!
In Canada, Catholic schools are publicly funded. It’s not a good arrangement, as this allows the government to interfere in the duty of these schools to teach the Faith.
Learn something new every day.
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