Two Toronto school trustees are asking the Ministry of Education to allow the Catholic school board to put off implementing Ontario's new sexual education curriculum.
In a statement sent Tuesday, Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees Angela Kennedy and Garry Tanuan said they would introduce a motion at a school board meeting on Thursday evening.
At the meeting, Kennedy and Tanuan will be asking fellow trustees to support delaying the roll-out of the new sex-ed curriculum by a year.
"Catholic schools shouldn't be forced to teach a program that doesn't ground the expression of sexuality in love and marriage," Kennedy said in the statement.
The trustees are asking for a year-long delay to provide time for the Institute for Catholic Education to write a separate version of the curriculum, complete with prompts to other Catholic teachings.
"Substantial parts of the curriculum contradict Catholic teachings," Kennedy said. "This is very personal and intimate material that we are asking educators to provide to our children."
The ministry has said that the curriculum will be introduced in the fall, regardless of the substantial backlash from parents and some school boards.
Parent groups and other protesters argue that the curriculum contains some content that is not age-appropriate.
The ministry has argued that the update is long overdue, and that students can benefit from learning about healthy relationships, consent, same-sex relationships and cyber-bullying.
The current curriculum has been in place since 1998.
