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My problem with the Ministry's and the TDSB's postion is that they took it upon themselves to narrow the focus of teaching about anti-bullying to that of the very narrow segment of population which may be homosexual. And they expect parents to accept this which further re-inforces the validity of the alternative lifestyle to children in their formative years.
What they could have done to make the programme palatable to the majority of parents, is to grandfather in the homosexual parent group with the over all concern about bullying. taunting and bullying in the school yard is by no means restricted to kids with homosexual parents. My first day in a Canadian schoolyard (being born in Trinidad, of chinese parents) was in Grade 6, where some girls immediately called me a chink and said that I should go home to where i came from. !!! My sisters and I took to walking home together so that we wouldn't get picked on. And it didn't stop at the kids. Even Teachers automatically assigned me to ESL classes, even tho I was brought up with a British Education in Trinidad. Just because i was chinese looking.
So. Bullying has to be addressed as a whole. Enough of the breaking it out into its sub-divisions. This way we get buy-in from the parents of all segtments of society.
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