It's news to Lamrock

Saint Croix Courier
Tuesday, Nov. 4
Page A-1
Sanchez controversy misses minister
Gay author captured national headlines but story never reached Lamrock’s ears

By KATHY BOCKUS
kathy@stcroixcourier.ca

ST. STEPHEN – The controversy last month surrounding a presentation at District 10 schools by a gay author who writes novels for gay teens made headlines in newspapers around the province and nationally.
It was a hot topic in the electronic media with hundreds of comments posted in online forums.
But New Brunswick’s Education Minister Kelly Lamrock said he wasn’t familiar with the story of Alex Sanchez nor was he aware of the public outcry that followed objecting to the cancellations and calling for the resignation or firing of District 10 Superintendent Keith Pierce.
The school talks by Sanchez, an award winning author, were cancelled after some parents strongly protested his appearances at St. Stephen High School and Fundy High School. Sanchez spoke instead at a church in St. Andrews. Some students who attended the talk said they wanted to let the province and the country know that Charlotte County is an accepting and tolerant place and that the actions of school administrators do not reflect the attitudes of all students.
District 10, which sponsored the author’s visit along with the Charlotte County Rainbow Support Group, has offered different explanations for the controversial on-again, off-again speaking engagement. District officials said a scheduling conflict led to the cancellation.
Either way, the first that the education minister said he heard of it was when he was questioned about it on Friday, Oct. 31, after arriving in St. Stephen to make a community schools designation announcement for St. George Elementary School and Milltown Elementary School.
“I certainly wouldn’t jump into an issue I just learned about here,” said Lamrock.
But Lamrock said he wanted, first of all, to make it clear that the school districts, not the province, hire school superintendents.
Then he stated that Pierce was an excellent superintendent.
“He’s gotten results here in literacy in community schools that I applaud and I certainly would not talk about a staff person’s performance in public and certainly wouldn’t do it on something I just heard about,” said Lamrock.
He said that in the province’s educational mandate, “When Kids Come First,” it is recognized that schools have to be “safe spaces for all kids.”
“Even good people of different ideas, different faiths can find common ground on one thing - that all kids should come to school feeling safe and secure in who they are,” said Lamrock.
“We’ve got to find ways to have schools that certainly recognize diversity and are safe spaces for students who are gay and lesbian or are going through that process.
“In any discussion with the district, those are the principles I would take forward.”
Lamrock concluded his statement on the topic by saying, “Whatever our different views of morality, we can all agree we have to recognize and tolerate that there is diversity and that our schools, all of them, are under a mandate to be safe spaces for gay, lesbian and bisexual students.”



EDITORIAL: Lamrock’s ignorance plea comes up lame
Saint Croix Courier
Tuesday, Nov. 4
Page A-4

The biggest headline maker related to education in New Brunswick in the past month was a nixed school visit by Alex Sanchez, an award-winning gay author who writes novels for teens.
Sanchez was supposed to speak to students in two Charlotte County high schools last month but those engagements were, depending on which spin you listen to, cancelled due to complaints from parents, scuttled due to scheduling conflicts or postponed until District 10 administration could hear the talk and decide whether it is appropriate for students. We’re still not sure which reason is correct. We’ve heard them all.
The Sanchez story reverberated far beyond Charlotte County and New Brunswick. It made headlines nationally and online forums were filled with chatter as hundreds of people weighed in on the issue of whether a homosexual author should be permitted to make a presentation to students. The subject remains a topic of conversation in our Letters to the Editor section today. The story was widely reported in print, on radio, TV and the web. It was and is big news, a hot button issue if ever there was one.
It’s only natural, then, that when the education minister came to St. Stephen on Friday we wanted to hear his take on the issue. After all, students were upset, parents were confused and the district superintendent was under fire. Keith Pierce said his e-mail inbox and voicemail were full of messages, some rather nasty. Students said the whole issue made them feel like they live in a backwards backwater where homosexuality was shunned and where gay students had best stay in the closet. Ironically all these feelings reached a boiling point amid plans for a pink day at schools – a day in which all students are encouraged to wear pink as a symbol of tolerance for all and a sign that bullying and abuse have no place here.
So, over to you Mr. Lamrock. Your thoughts?
Turns out a question from a reporter was the first he’d ever heard about the Sanchez controversy. That’s what Lamrock said Friday and he said it with a straight face. A story on the issue published Oct. 21 in the Woodstock Bugle-Observer suggests Lamrock declined to comment on the issue. Whether that means he knew about it but chose not to comment or could not be reached for comment could be open to interpretation – but it doesn’t look good.
For our education minister to miss this story is unacceptable. To be in the know and playing dumb is much worse.
Lamrock, and all our provincial ministers, don’t make a move without being overseen and advised by a posse of Crackberry-twiddling assistants. Surely one of them has a Google news alert for “education” and “New Brunswick.” Surely one of them reads the papers or watches TV. Surely someone in the department could have suggested that Mr. Lamrock might want to check out this little story in Charlotte County that has attracted national attention.
Saying he didn’t know a thing about the story is either an admission that he’s out of touch or a poor attempt at feigning ignorance to avoid the question. Neither scenario is befitting the province’s education minister.