As in thousands of homes across the province, the Jangda children are gearing up for the new school year. Mishal, 7, has carefully packed her lunch box, while brothers Ovais, 12, and Usman, 13, are eager to break in new sneakers on the soccer field and basketball court.

But the bustling back-to-school excitement is unfolding against a backdrop of uncertainty amongst parents concerned about what will be taught following the province’s controversial repeal of the 2015 sexual education curriculum for elementary students and its replacement with outdated lesson plans.

Some teachers have vowed to keep using the modernized version. But Premier Doug Ford has warned of consequences and has set up a “snitch line” to report those breaking the rules.

It’s left parents, on both sides of the divide, scratching their heads. Rauf Jangda worries the 2015 curriculum will be taught, while Stuart Lessels and Soofia Mahmood worry it won’t.

Jangda, who is part of the Thorncliffe Parents’ Association, a grassroots group that opposes sex-ed in schools, is thrilled the Progressive Conservatives scrapped the health and physical education curriculum ushered in by the Liberals, saying it contained “rubbish.”

When it was introduced in September 2015, the parent group was so opposed to its inclusion of gender identity and same-sex issues that they pulled their children from Thorncliffe Park Public School, setting up class in a nearby park and community centre. At the peak of the protest, nearly 800 students boycotted that school. By late October, the protest had petered out, with kids either back at school, being home-schooled or, like the Jangda children, transferred to private Islamic schools.

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“Obviously, we are happy,” Jangda says of the repeal. But he’s suspicious of whether teachers will follow the interim curriculum, to be used while the province holds public consultations to draft a new document.

“We don’t have the trust,” he says. “I’ve seen in the news that certain groups of teachers still want to teach (the 2015) curriculum. I don’t know how far they will be successful. But I don’t want to take the chance.”

So, daughter Mishal will attend a private Islamic school for Grade 2. His boys — they transitioned back to the public school system last year to play sports — will stay put. Usman is starting Grade 9 at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute and Ovais will go to Valley Park Middle School for Grade 7. But on days when sex-ed is taught — it typically comes up later in the school year — both boys will stay home.

“We’ve been put in a lot of hardship,” says Jangda, seated in the family’s modest rental apartment in Toronto. Tuition for the three had cost about $1,000 a month, but now with just Mishal attending, it will be $475. Unable to cover the costs — Jangda does electronic circuit design and wife Atiya is a substitute daycare worker — they had family help foot the bill.

“We’re not the only ones. There are thousands of people who have been put in hardship.”

He knows of one couple who moved to Pakistan with their four kids when the curriculum was introduced and returned to Toronto after its repeal. Another couple separated because the wife supported the 2015 curriculum, but the husband didn’t.

The 2015 curriculum addressed topics most health experts and best practices suggested it should, such as sexual orientation, gender identity, same-sex-relationships, consent, sexting and online safety. But many social conservatives were outraged, saying it was too explicit and not age-appropriate, so Ford made an election promise to get rid of it.

“They were promoting a certain lifestyle that we don’t like. It is against our (Muslim) faith,” said Jangda. “We don’t want our kids to be asked, ‘Do you want to be a boy or do you want to be a girl?’... Gender fluidity and gender identity was planting confusion in the kids.”

By comparison, the interim curriculum is based on a 2010 document and makes some reference to modern concepts, but the sex-ed material is from 1998. Critics argue it discriminates against the LGBTQ community and violates human rights, so they’re taking the province to court.

“I should decide about what, and when, my kids should be taught,” says Jangda.

Stuart Lessels, single father to Ayden, 9, and Kayla, 12, relies on input from experts about what his kids should learn in order to stay safe, noting he’s not an educator, or child development specialist — he’s a mortgage agent. That’s why he supports the 2015 curriculum, which underwent an extensive consultation process with parents, educators, child services workers and health care professionals, among others.

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“The online world we have today is not what I grew up with,” says Lessels, who lives in Collingwood. “I want to make sure my kids are as aware as possible so they’re not taken advantage of.”

He hopes the 2015 curriculum is used at St. Mary’s Catholic School, where Ayden is starting Grade 4 and Kayla Grade 7, but has no idea what will be covered.

“I’m trying to figure out what are they going to be missing, and what’s being taken away, so I can talk about it at home and make sure they’re not vulnerable and naive.”

Lessels is comfortable talking to his kids about sex-ed, but says it’s more impactful coming from a teacher.

“I’d rather reinforce what is coming home from school, than be broaching the topic,” he says. “The fact that they can come home and talk about it, reinforces their trust in me as their parent and in our communication. And I’m guessing that as they go into those horrible, frightening, teenage years, having that communication is a lot better than not having it.”

Lessels was so upset with the repeal that, for the first time, he contacted his school board trustee and MPP Progressive Conservative Jim Wilson to complain. Then he read about Ford’s warning to teachers — “Make no mistake, if we find somebody failing to do their job, we will act” — and the creation of an online site for parents to report teachers not following the interim curriculum, which critics have derided as a snitch line. But in recent days, Ford has softened, saying he thinks the world of teachers, that we have some of the best in Ontario and wants input from them, and other experts, during the consultation.

Lessels says the province is failing its job of ensuring children are properly educated. So he acted by signing on to the site and reporting the premier.

“I want my children to have the best possible information so they can, with my support, make the best possible choices and decisions. As parents, the rest is a crap shoot.”

Similarly, Soofia Mahmood will do her best to talk to daughter Diya Asad, 12, about issues not covered in class — she too is confused about what the seventh grader will learn at Toronto’s Duke of Connaught Junior and Senior Public School.

Lucky for Mahmood, she has easy access to resources being the manager of communications and fund development at The 519, a city agency that serves LGBTQ2S communities. It’s launched a campaign called “We Have Your Back Ontario” to provide youth and teachers with information that’s been eliminated from the curriculum.

Mahmood is furious about the repeal saying, “My kid should have sex education and an education that aligns with the human rights code.”

After all, that’s why this single mother, raised in a conservative Muslim family, uprooted her life in 2015 and moved from Pakistan, leaving behind a great career, a big house and good friends.

“I did it for my child,” says Mahmood. She wants Diya raised in an open and secular society, receiving an inclusive education, so that she develops an expanded world view.

That’s what the 2015 sex-ed curriculum was providing, she says. Plus, Diya was learning in a class with students from around the world, free to express their gender identity and sexual orientation, and from all sorts of different family structures.

“It was something I celebrated, that (Diya) was being exposed to that.”

Mahmood says the repeal sends a “very bad message” to children because they may think that if parents, or the government, are opposed to something then it must be wrong.

“I don’t want this for my kid,” she says. “I did not make this journey to be at the point where we’re fighting the same fight: That we can’t talk about gender identity or sexual orientation.”

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