Teen and Mother File Complaint with Human Rights Commission Over Abstinence Based Sex Ed Course

Alberta was in the news recently when a doctor refused to prescribe birth control pills to her patients and now one of Alberta’s schools, McNally High School, is in the news for outsourcing their Career and Life Management course to Pregnancy Care Centre, a group linked to an American anti-abortion group, Care-Net. You can guess what type of pregnancy prevention Pregnancy Care Centre teaches – yes that’s right – abstinence.

But it doesn’t stop there, according to 18 year old Emily Dawson, who took the two day course, there were other outmoded religious values inflicted on the captive audience:

Basically shaming the girls and making them gatekeepers and meanwhile making it sound like the boys had no impulse control.

Emily’s mother Kathy launched a complaint to the Alberta Human Rights Commission and the school board responded swiftly by removing the course. According to the National Post, the Pregnancy Care Centre is no longer teaching the course and the school board will be searching for another provider, however the board maintains that the Pregnancy Care Centre taught a science based course that met board standards.

It will be interesting to see how the Human Rights complaint unfolds as it is made on the basis that the material infringed on Kathy and Emily’s rights as non Christians.