Higgs says it's too early to know whether sex-ed group can return to schools
HPV Global Action president says N.B. education, health officials vetted a now-banned presentation
Premier Blaine Higgs says it's still not clear whether a now-banned sex education presentation was vetted properly, but he would not rule out allowing the presenters back in New Brunswick schools.
Higgs said it's "too early to say" whether HPV Global Action, a Quebec-based sex education group, will be allowed to present at schools in New Brunswick again.
That comes two weeks after the premier, in a post to X, said the group would be banned "effective immediately, after the group gave several presentations to Grade 9 to 11 students last month.
HPV Global Action's president Teresa Norris met with Higgs's principal secretary, Steve Outhouse, in person on Thursday to show him the presentation.
Outhouse, who is also working as Higgs's campaign manager, was the only government representative to view the presentation Thursday.
Higgs told reporters the intention behind that was to "have a neutral person just look at" the content.
The premier has said the group's presentation went beyond the curriculum, but on Friday he said department staff will evaluate whether that's the case.
"That wasn't the purpose of that meeting," he said when asked why no Department of Education staff attended Thursday's meeting to evaluate the content. "It will come to that, I'm sure.
"I don't have a full assessment of that discussion, but I understand the next step is to measure that against the curriculum."
Teresa Norris, president of the non-profit organization, said on Thursday she has presented in New Brunswick for years without issue until Higgs posted the cover slide from her presentation online.
Premier
Blaine Higgs says it is too soon to know whether a Quebec-based sex
education group will be allowed to present in schools again. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
It featured questions about anal sex, pornography, and other topics Higgs called "clearly inappropriate" and outside of the sex education curriculum. He later told reporters he had not seen the full presentation.
"In all of our years, we have never had anybody work with us, see our presentation, or in an aftermath ever have any issue with our presentation," she said.
"The only thing that happens after our presentation is, typically, somebody is saying, 'could you come to our school too?'"
Higgs shared a photo of a sex education presentation to X, formerly Twitter, calling the material 'clearly inappropriate.' (X)
Norris told reporters the provincial Department of Health and Department of Education both had a hand in vetting the presentation.
She previously told CBC News schools are required to view an outline of the presentation and sign a consent form before she delivers it to students.
But Higgs questioned whether presentations like this one should be approved after seeing a "one-pager" outline rather than a full presentation.
"At this point in time we haven't found anyone in the system that actually looked at the presentation," he said.
"If there wasn't clarity going in to what was acceptable or considered acceptable and what wasn't, that's a problem. If there wasn't a request to see the entire presentation before you present it to 200 kids in an auditorium, that's a problem."
Outhouse called the meeting "constructive" in an interview Friday.
"We definitely have more information now than when we started," he said. "There are some followup questions that we have."
Steve
Outhouse, the premier's principal secretary, was the only government
representative who attended the sex-ed presentation viewing. (Alix Villeneuve/CBC)
He's asked the organization to share more information about its communication with the departments.
"The overall question will be, was this a situation where the vetting process wasn't thorough enough to determine if there would be issues?" Outhouse said. "Or whether the vetting process was thorough but not enough information was provided.
"Ultimately, where we want to get to at the end of the day is to have a process so that educators can still decide ... what's appropriate to be put forward, but parents have adequate notice so they can decide if they wish to have their children participate or not."
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Sticking a political nose into education for the sake of manufacturing outrage has to stop. We don't need this American-style conservatism here.
The premier has said the group's presentation went beyond the curriculum, but on Friday he said department staff will evaluate whether that's the case.
WTG Blaine how many times is it now that you make a call and then back pedal when the facts are known.
And it's not his job to micromanage every single thing in NB. It's his job to govern the entire province, and one would HOPE he had enough to do to keep busy.
If you want him to "protect children" have him stick his nose into the pitiful state of our roadway system. Somebody is going to die on those roads that have gone unmaintained for at least four years now. It as easily might be children as anybody else.
The rest just comes naturally.
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