The Structural Dominance of White Supremacy

"Self-identification is sufficient for trans students and employees to be addressed by their chosen name and pronouns and to be recognized according to their gender identity."

"Staff shall maintain privacy and confidentiality of trans students and will not disclose a student's gender identity to the students' parent/family/guardian, employees or other students without the student's explicit prior consent and unless the student requests it."

Durham District School Board, Ontario

"How many different pronouns must a teacher memorize? If 23 students all have different pronouns and the teacher gets one wrong, would that be grounds for a complaint?"

"I was a little disturbed to see that you would keep things private with the student and not let parents know."

"[Students requesting a change of gender might be best advised to] seek counselling to find out whether or not something else may be interfering with what the child is actually going through."

Linda Stone, trustee, Durham District School Board

Linda Stone, a trustee for the Durham District School Board, is pictured in a Nov. 2021 school board meeting as she questions the district's policy of "affirming" children's gender transitions without informing parents. These comments were cited by fellow trustees in ordering her censure. Photo by YouTube/Durham District School Board

"Transphobia has no place in our schools or school boards", a fellow trustee wrote in a tweet following the Ontario school board's censure of one of its trustees. Trustee Linda Stone was barred from attending board meetings after having publicly questioned the stated policy of the district in accommodating a student's decision to switch genders, the while maintaining it as a secret from their parents.

Henceforth trustee Stone is barred from all board meetings and committee hearings for all of 2023. The board's statement concerning the "harmful impact" of Stone's comments, urging the community to "begin to  heal", came down solidly in favour of silencing anyone who questions their decisions or recommends other, alternative courses of action. Needless to say, trustees are voted into office through a democratic proces by the public choosing who will represent their interests in a school district, among them parents of children attending public schools.

Throughout the Province of Ontario, including Canada's largest city's Toronto District School Board, it is forbidden to question Trans policies accommodating the issue of transgender choices and accommodation. Teachers who express any shadpw of skepticism, asking questions, making recommendations, are sent home on paid leave, not to return to the classroom.

 

DDSB public school trustee Linda Stone is interviewed by Rogers TV Durham on the opening of two new schools in Oshawa   Facebook

 

In the case of the removed trustee, a 55-page report commissioned from an outside investigator concluded that Trustee Stone was guilty of espousing "racist" and "transphobic" viewpoints causing "objective harm" to the transcommunity. She had questioned the district's policy of concealing a child's gender transition from parents. The school board's official "accommodation guidelines" are that a student can change gender simply by declaring so and staff are explicitly forbidden from questioning the new identity or failing to provide appropriate "affirmation". 

Trustee Stone's comments were said to have spurred a few complaints to the board -- of Ms.Stone violating the "equiity and diversity initiative" of the district. The report by the investigator focused on her "antitrans" Twitter history where she retweeted a post from a mother that her daughter's U13 rugby team played against an opponent with "two large boys in it", referring to trans girls.

Another occasion saw her posting a link to testimony from Chloe Cole, a California teen who campaigns against trans surgery for minors following her own double mastectomy while in high school. It was that tweet which reflected the comment in the report that Trustee Stone was circulating "antitrans language", perpetuating "harmful narratives around transgender people." Trustee Stone was said to be "racist" when she opposed changes to district policies claiming the district was infiltrated with "systemic racism" enabled by "the structural dominance of white supremacy".

Another Ontario school trustee, Mike Ramsay, was censured for critiquing the presence of "anti-racism" ideology in the school curriculum -- and that, despite that he is himself Back. Trustee Stone had posted a tweet condemning the teaching of critical race theory; in fact she was re-posting a tweet that originated with Mike Ramsay. 

Another incident in Waterloo, Ontario saw teacher Carolyn Burjoski registering her concerns at a school board meeting, over school library books she identified as glossing over the long-term consequences of gender transition surgery and hormone treatment. One book entitled The Other Boy, had the main character say "it's cool" when informed gender transition would render permanent sterilization. The teacher was issued with a "stay-at-home" order.