One Richmond parent is wondering why information about a queer/trans resiliency group isn’t being shared by the Richmond District Parent Advisory (RDPA) committee.
Steveston resident Karina Reid told the Richmond News she’s asked the RDPA, which represents all parent advisory committees across the Richmond School District, to send information to all parents via email and the RDPA Facebook page about the group offered by the Foundry.
“It is censorship based on their own political views and values,” she said of the RDPA decision.
Reid sits on the school district’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) committee and the queer/trans-resiliency group information came from that committee.
But then vice-president Dean Billings told the News last week the information about the group came just hours before an RDPA meeting. Furthermore, he said he didn’t know anything about the Foundry. (Billings is now the RDPA secretary.)
Billings said RDPA receives emails all the time from companies offering services and asking them to distribute the information, which they’re not comfortable doing. He equated the information from the Foundry as being a similar situation.
(The Foundry is funded by Vancouver Coastal Health and provides mental-health resources for youth ages 12 to 24.)
In an emailed statement, RDPA president Connie Huang said, while they have “always aimed to stand with parents while respecting and supporting the LGBTQ community,” they recognize parents may have “different opinions.”
In further correspondence, Huang said RDPA recognizes Richmond families come from "diverse educational, cultural, and personal contexts, and not everyone will have the same understanding or viewpoint regarding SOGI education."
"As the official bridge between the School District and Richmond parents, RDPA discusses these topics as a team and shares important information through our social media platforms to keep the community informed," she added.
Billings said he doesn’t consider the role of RDPA to be a “conduit of government information,” rather to aggregate parents’ views and bring them to the Richmond School District.
Billings said he has asked questions from the school district on various topics and he has felt he’s been given “non-answers.”
For example, he asked about drug use at schools and about incidents of racism – not identifying any school or student, rather aggregate information – and was denied this information due to privacy concerns.
Billings has been banned from several committees, including public standing committees. Board chair Ken Hamaguchi said he couldn't clarify why as the details "are part of a confidential letter sent to the RDPA president."
Billings wouldn’t comment on this ban to the News.
‘Tensions’ at RDPA annual general meeting
Another parent said she attended the recent RDPA annual general meeting, and she felt there was a lot of tension when questions were asked of the executive.
Ainslie Cook, who has two children in Richmond schools, attended the May 7 meeting at the Richmond School District main office.
While the chair said the meeting was a “safe” place, Cook said she didn’t feel it was safe as many questions and comments were interrupted and cut off.
“The tone was very top-down in the meeting,” Cook told the News.
As for the information about the trans/queer resiliency group put on by the Foundry, the RDPA put the information on the screen at the AGM, saying they were “sharing” the information, according to Cook.
But that wasn’t the point, Cook told the News, as it wasn’t being disseminated to parents across the school district.
From Cook’s viewpoint, the RDPA, in its current practices, reflects “conservative values.”
According to its constitution, the RDPA is expected to be “unbiased towards race, religion, gender, sexual orientation or political affiliation.”
The News has reached out to RDPA president Huang for further clarification but has not heard back.
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