Achi news desk-
The head of a Quebec sexual and reproductive health organization says she is disappointed that New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has deemed presentations he made in the province last week to be inappropriate.
On Friday, Higgs posted on X that a number of parents had shared photos of what he called “obviously inappropriate” material presented in secondary schools.
“To say I was furious would be a gross understatement,” Higgs wrote. “This presentation was not part of the New Brunswick curriculum and the content was not flagged to parents in advance.”
Teresa Norris is the president and founder of HPV Global Action and made presentations at four high schools last week.
In an interview on Sunday night with CTV News, he said that the work of his organization and what the presentations actually meant were being grossly misrepresented.
“New Brunswick, along with many other provinces, has adopted a curriculum to deal with sexual health issues and the presentation that I gave and that I have been providing in your province for years in many places across the province suddenly now inappropriate. because someone decided to take an excerpt from that slide and create a story around it,” Norris said.
A picture of what appears to be a recent presentation was attached to Higgs’ post.
It showed a slide from a presentation by Thirsty for the Talk, which Norris also operates.
Norris said Thirsty for the Talk is an external resource that offers young people evidence-based information that they can access instead of going to the web to get answers to their questions.
The slide had four chat bubbles with questions like, “Is it normal to watch porn like people watch TV series?” and “Do women masturbate?”
Higgs said Department of Education officials told his office that the presentation was supposed to be on the human papillomavirus [HPV].
HPV is a common sexually transmitted infection that can cause several types of cancer in some cases.
“However, the group shared materials well beyond the scope of the HPV presentation. The fact that this was shared indicates that either inappropriate vetting was done, the group misrepresented the content that they would shares it … or both,” Higgs said.
Effective immediately, the group will not be allowed to present again in any schools in the province.
Norris said he doesn’t take kindly to the Healthy Relationships 101 presentation being seen as inappropriate.
“Especially after the amount of work and integrity that goes into it. So I think I’m disappointed and it would be nice if this could be rectified,” said Norris.
Norris said she has been to dozens of schools in the province over the past 10 years to make the same presentation and added that the Department of Education does a good job screening outside groups that come to New Brunswick.
“We were vetted. We are on your list of organizations that can come into your state. What we cover in that presentation has gone over. All the issues we deal with are be discussed,” Norris said.
Schools are given an information sheet outlining all the areas that will be addressed in advance and consent forms are signed.
“At no point was anybody under any illusion that I was going to be talking specifically about one particular thing,” Norris said.
Norris would not say at which schools he made the presentations because he says too much attention has already been directed at them.
Higgs said his government will have further discussions about whether additional rules around third-party submissions will need to be updated.
“Children should be protected, and parents should be respected,” he said.
The post ended with a link to a survey asking parents if they feel there is a need for stronger rules around third party submissions in schools.
In July 2023, Higgs made changes to Policy 713, which is the province’s policy on sexual orientation and gender in schools.
One of the main changes was that students who are under 16 and consider themselves to be transgender or non-binary will not be able to officially change their preferred names or pronouns at school without the permission of their parents or guardians.
That decision has caused controversy among many LGBTQ+ advocates who believe the changes make the policy more discriminatory.
The province is currently in a legal dispute with the Anglophone East School District Education Council over the changes.
Earlier this month, Education Minister Bill Hogan announced that he would seek to abolish the education council over litigation fees.
The council is in the process of taking the province to court over the changes the Higgs government made last summer.
Higgs has repeatedly said that he supports the changes and that they take a strong position for families.
