SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The sex-education curriculum is severely lacking at Yk1 schools, according to at least one trustee and one parent, but schools' hands are tied as the territorial education department holds the power and responsibility for what is taught.

Jay Butler, school trustee with Yk1, left, sits with fellow trustee Allan Shortt during an election forum at Range Lake North School earlier this month. Butler has been a particularly vocal critic of the sex-ed curriculum and wants the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to speed up the process of creating a new one. - Simon Whitehouse/NNSL photo

Lisa Seagrave, a mother of two daughters, declared the sex-ed curriculum is not comprehensive enough at a pre-election Yk1 forum earlier this month.

"I have two girls who are in Grade 5 and 6 and as of yet they have not had a discussion in school about sex or menstruation or anything to do with body health or body science," she told the panel, adding she didn't know whether it was the curriculum or just the school.

Reached after the school board election, Seagrave reiterated her concerns.

The new school board ought to take a more proactive effort to make early education on sexual health a more serious issue, because its not being taught before Grade 5, she told Yellowknifer last week.

Elected Oct. 19, the new board consists of incumbent trustees Terry Brookes, John Stephenson, Allan Shortt and Jay Butler plus Duff Spence, Tina Drew and Rajiv Rawat.

Contacted last week by Yellowknifer, Yk1 superintendent Metro Huculak and trustees Shortt and Butler said the district is unable to do much to change the sex education program as it's set to be updated as part of the Educational Renewal Initiative, which is expected to be unveiled within the

next few years.

The initiative is a 10-year Department of Education endevour to overhaul the curriculum.

At the forum, Butler said he agrees entirely with Seagrave's concerns.

"(Sex education) is woefully, dreadfully inadequate across the NWT as far as I am concerned," he said in response to Seagrave at the forum.

Butler stood behind his comments last week, saying sex education should be taught early when boys and girls are not attracted to each other, or "when girls are still icky and boys still have cooties."

"Our sex education curriculum is incredibly outdated by at least 20 years and so everything we are teaching is (from an era) before smart phones, let alone before Facebook," he said.

"More knowledge is better than less knowledge so I really feel it is critical that we be educating all of our students as fully and as early as we realistically can."

He added ECE is taking too long in its education renewal process.

As a father of two daughters who have been through the FOXY program, an independent sexual-health education group, Butler said children need to have more knowledge.

Information about intimacy, consent, relationships and human sexuality should begin as early as kindergarten through the introduction of physical anatomy, he said.

But perspectives among the trustees vary.

"Both of my kids got sex education in Grade 8," said now-elected Tina Drew at the forum. "I almost thought that was too early for my boys. They had no interest in listening to it so they just tuned out."

Reached later, the public nurse added to her comments.

"With reproduction education, I think we have to be mindful that there is a difference between sexes," she said.

"As a nurse who has worked with Planned Parenthood teaching sexual health in the middle school and the high school in B.C., (I found) it was obvious that girls were more interested and ready to learn at an earlier age than boys. Repeating the same message at different grades is a must."

Seagrave says she doesn't like being left waiting.

"I think it is unfortunate that we are left sitting on our hands waiting for an ECE plan for the future."

Rita Mueller, assistant deputy minister of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, confirmed the department is in the third year of a 10-year renewal of an entire curriculum, which is about 25 years old and out of date. Part of those changes will be to update sex education or "health and wellness" from kindergarten to Grade 9 to align with best practices taught in other areas of Canada and internationally.

"I don't think it will change much even with a broad curriculum," she said, noting some topics could be introduced earlier if academic research dictates it necessary.

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