Three teachers lose jobs over sex-ed boycott

About 200 parents and children protested the provincial government's new sex-education curriculum
outside Thorncliffe Park Public School in early October.

Drop in number of students at two schools in Thorncliffe Park forces board to cut three teachers.

Ontario’s sex-education controversy appears to have claimed three teaching positions in a Toronto neighbourhood where upset parents keeping their kids out of school have reduced the number of classes needed.

At Thorncliffe Park Public School, an early September boycott of nearly 800 students over the revised curriculum dwindled as parents gradually brought their kids back to school, but when the last 100 still failed to show up by mid-October, the school was forced to dissolve two Grade 1 classes and declare two long-term occasional teachers as “surplus.”

“It’s disappointing for sure, but we know some of these students are attending Muslim schools and others are being home-schooled so it appears they’re learning,” said Thorncliffe Park Principal Jeff Crane. With an enrolment of about 1,260 students from kindergarten to Grade 5, Thorncliffe is still the largest elementary school in Canada, even though the number of Grade 1 classes has dropped to 13 from 15.  (more...)

Three teachers lose jobs over sex-ed boycott