During an interview after Wednesday's school board meeting, Richmond Board of Education Trustee Alice Wong told the Chinese newspaper Sing Tao Daily that she voted in favour of the SOGI policy “by mistake.”
In the Sing Tao story, it stated that “Wong told the reporter, because the process that night was so long and the vote took place after 12:30 a.m., [she] 'raised her hand by mistake' to vote in favour of it amid the chaos.”
The article also stated that Wong "hopes parents are aware of her constant efforts to handle every policy carefully."
After a five-hour discussion, the final draft of the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) policy, a policy that aims to create safety and acceptance for LGBTQ+ students, was voted for by all trustees except Jonathan Ho on Wednesday night.
At first, Ho moved a motion to defer the vote to September in order to allow more time for consultations. Wong seconded and voted for the deferment motion, which was also supported by Eric Yung, but it was defeated at 4-3.
After that, the chair called for a final vote to pass the SOGI policy. Trustees including Wong and Yung voted in favour of it.
Yung explained in the meeting that he was in favour of the SOGI policy and voted to defer it earlier because he wanted "more time for parents to learn about the merit of it.”
Wong, however, didn’t comment on why she voted for it at the time.
Richmond News has been trying to contact Wong for comment but has received no response to date.
