Sackville parent Patricia Kelly Spurles is spending Friday on the front lawn of the New Brunswick legislature, waiting for her chance to meet and talk with Education Minister Bill Hogan about his recently announced changes to New Brunswick’s Policy 713 - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Kelly Spurles says she’ll continue to show up while the legislature is in session, in hopes of being able to share her concerns about what Hogan’s policy changes could mean from trans kids and their families.

After releasing his changes in a news conference Thursday morning, Hogan immediately took criticism in the legislature, most notably from Liberal leader Susan Holt, Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton, and eight members of his own party, who sat out of the legislature, citing concerns over the process of revising Policy 713.

Hogan outlined three areas of change, with the most significant being in the requirements around addressing students. The original policy 713 required that school staff use a student’s preferred first name and pronouns “consistently in ways that the student has requested.” But Hogan’s revision limits this requirement to only students 16 and over.

Hogan told reporters that he felt the original policy was “fundamentally wrong” because it did not require parents to be notified of preferred name changes in kids under 16. Under the current policy, changes to how a child is addressed at school could be, “in essence hidden from parents unless the child gives permission to share that with them. We believe that it’s fundamentally wrong to not share this information with parents if we are using it on a daily basis.”

The current policy 713 does require parental consent for any official name changes on school records for kids 15 and under, but when it comes to how students are addressed by staff every day, it does not require a parental thumbs up.

Hogan told reporters “we understand that the impact on a child’s mental health is significant,” but focused on the need to involve parents as “partners and stakeholders in education.”

“We must respect parents and the role that they play in their child’s life and education,” said Hogan. “Parents are in the best position to support their child through the majority of life changes like a change in gender identity.”

Education minister Bill Hogan in an online Q&A hosted by the department on Monday, January 16, 2023. Image: Screencap

Hogan told reporters the policy would not require teachers to out children, but that if children 15 and under wanted their teachers to use their preferred names at school, they would need parental consent. Meanwhile the text of the policy distributed by the Department of Education doesn’t appear to prohibit teachers from using preferred pronouns, but rather removes a requirement for them to do so for kids under 16. According to the amended policy, which comes into effect on July 1, teachers will have to choose how they address kids under 16.

That worries Patricia Kelly Spurles. “I’m concerned that without having the provincial policy’s support, children’s choice and right to use the name and pronouns that feel right to them, it will be left up to individual teachers’ feelings of the day,” she told CHMA.

Kelly Spurles is parent to a 14-year-old trans kid who started using their chosen name and pronouns a few years ago, during the time that Policy 713 was brought in. Aside from the occasional reminder to her kids’ school, she feels her child’s choice has been respected.

But the change to Police 713 will affect trans kids and families on a larger scale, she says, by sending a cultural signal. “Trans children in school, but also trans people who aren’t in school, won’t feel that these that these choices are legitimate and supported by the government, by the educational system, and by the public,” says Kelly Spurles.

And then there’s the question of more specific, immediate harm. A slew of MLAs including Memramcook-Tantramar’s Megan Mitton called out Hogan’s policy changes on Thursday for the potential harm they might cause. “This new policy seems like it will put teachers in the challenging position where they will have to deadname and misgender students,” said Mitton, referring to the use of a person’s former, non-preferred name. “The harm this will cause is absolutely unacceptable.”

Kelly Spurles says the research is there to show that how kids are addressed can impact risk of suicide and suicidal ideation. “The research shows that trans kids are more likely to consider suicide than non-trans kids. And having even one context in which they can use their chosen name and pronouns, decreases their risk of suicidal ideation by 29%.”

Kelly Spurles says the current Policy 713 helps guarantee that schools will be a place where that risk is reduced. “This is something that is easy to implement,” she says. “It doesn’t require additional staff or additional funding. And I think it’s an important way that we can support trans kids and their families.”

Kelly Spurles says she will keep coming back at the lawn of the legislature while it’s in session until Minister Hogan is able to speak with her about Policy 713. When she gets to speak with him, Kelly Spurles says she will ask about his experience as a teacher, principal, and parent. “And his experience as a community member, and as a young person,” says Kelly Spurles. “If he remembers from his youth, people that didn’t seem to fit in and were really unhappy and, you know, looking for a way out of the world.”

“New Brunswick doesn’t need to go it alone,” says Kelly Spurles. “We don’t need to reverse a policy that has been successful for a couple of years. We don’t need to adopt a way of dealing with trans kids that’s different from what’s happening in the rest of the civilized world.”

Other changes to Policy 713

In addition to removing the requirement to address younger students by their declared names, Hogan’s revised policy also adds a direct reference to resources for kids who aren’t ready to disclose to their parents. “If it is not possible to obtain consent to talk to the parent, the student will be directed to the appropriate professional (i.e. school social worker, school psychologist) to work with them in the development of a plan to speak with their parents,” reads the new policy, “if and when they are ready to do so.”

Another change to the policy removes a guarantee for kids to be able to participate in gendered sports teams according to their declared gender, which Hogan says is already covered by policies of the New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletic Association.

The third change adds a requirement for “private universal changing areas” in all schools.