The walkout was an amazing event, that brought a wide-range of students with like-minded views together. It allowed for an amazing discussion of the sex-education curriculums and the changes that need to be made to both the 2015 and 1998 editions. Many students who were unaware of these issues or agreed with Doug Ford’s changes came forward and expressed their opinions to the crowd- respectfully. It was overall, an amazing experience.
“As a bisexual, I find the fact that they are removing LGBTQ+ education from sex-ed offensive. I feel as if they are removing a part of me from the curriculum. This movement [the walkout] allows for me to protest for the education of young children and attempt to ensure they learn about something that is prominent in today’s society, the LGBTQ+ community.”
- Annie W, a grade nine student at the Ridge
“We keep ignoring things. Ignoring the history of Indigenous people, Ignoring the rights and existence of the LGBTQ+ community. We were finally getting somewhere and now we want to go back on that- why?”
-Caroline M, a grade nine student at the Ridge
“Learning about consent should be mandatory. No means NO and that needs to be common knowledge. Unfortunately it’s not, and the updated version of the curriculum found the perfect way to address this issue. By teaching consent from such a young age and finding circumstances other than sexual ones to reinforce the idea, children are wired to understand consent. Without this learning from a young age, the concept seems to become much harder to students to grasp. We need proper sex-ed, not some B.S based on the hetrosexual norm and abstinence.”
-Mattie DS, a grade twelve student at the Ridge
“I’m Bi and growing up I heard about the LGBTQ community from friends and google. For a lot of people school is the only place where they are educated on these issues. Without education, comes ignorance and judgement, which spreads hate in this world. False information needs to be proved wrong and the only way to do this is through education and safe-space discussion.”
- Quynh-anh L, a grade nine student at the Ridge
“As an Indigenous person, I think it’s important for children to be educated on Indigenous peoples rights because we were here first and it’s our f**king land.”
-Sophia B, a grade twelve student at the Ridge
A special thank you to everyone who came out!
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