Article content

The Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association says it is concerned two aspects of legislation introduced by the NDP government to protect the privacy of students in gay-straight alliances could have “unintended consequences.”

In its first statement since the NDP introduced Bill 24, an Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances, the association representing Catholic school trustees across Alberta said Monday it believes the bill could erode local school board and school official autonomy. The legislation would stop school staff from informing parents that their child had joined a gay-straight alliance without the child’s consent.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Catholic school trustees call Bill 24 'erosion of school board autonomy' Back to video

“One of our main concerns with Bill 24 is the diminishment of the role of school governing bodies, particularly the elected school boards and school superintendents,” the association said in its statement.

The trustees also feel the bill puts undue pressure “on the school principal to be, in effect, the sole decision-maker who is only accountable to the minister of education, bypassing long-entrenched best practices and chains of authority as outlined in the School Act.”

The organization also said it wants clarification on what information can be withheld from parents, saying schools should avoid a “blanket refusal to communicate” to parents.