New Brunswick Education Department received no complaints about pronouns kept secret – New Brunswick | Globalnews.ca

A University of New Brunswick professor’s freedom of information request shows no parents complained to the province’s Education Department that they had been left in the dark about their children’s preferred pronouns.

Melissa Dockrill Garrett, a researcher specializing in inclusive education, asked to see all complaints from parents concerned they weren’t consulted by schools about their child using a different name or pronouns, but the department said no such written records exist.

Dockrill Garrett said she requested the documents after Education Minister Bill Hogan claimed he had received “hundreds” of complaints from parents and teachers regarding Policy 713, which lays out gender identity protocols for New Brunswick’s schools.

Blaine Higgs’s Progressive Conservative government changed the policy, effective July 1, to remove the obligation that teachers use the preferred pronouns or names of students under the age of 16, unless the student has parental consent.

Kelly Lamrock, the province’s youth advocate, also sought evidence of the complaints after Hogan announced a review of the policy, but in May he reported that his request yielded three complaints, none of which were from parents.

A request for comment from Hogan’s office was not immediately answered.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2023.