An agreement between a public school board and a faith-based Calgary facility threatens students with expulsion and staff with dismissal if they engage in a “lifestyle of sexual immorality.”

The final deal between Palliser Regional Schools and Heritage Christian Academy inked six months ago doesn’t define the term, but earlier versions say premarital relations, viewing pornography and homosexual behaviour are all offside.

Those prior versions were either provided to the newspaper by board officials or were available on the school’s website within the last two weeks, but have since been changed.

Board officials confirmed students and staff are still required to sign the revised school covenants to attend or work at the publicly-funded school in the city’s northeast.

But associate superintendent Dale Backlin said Thursday that those who break the rules would never be disciplined because that would violate Alberta’s human rights legislation.

“You can’t discriminate on that basis and the Palliser board would never go down that road,” Backlin said.

“The society that runs the school just wants people to know what their expectations are at the outset.”

Prior and Current Versions of Student and Staff Covenants for Heritage Christian Academy

Fifteen years after the country’s top court forbid discrimination in Alberta on the basis of sexual orientation in a landmark case involving a gay instructor fired from his job at a private college, a University of Calgary expert said she is shocked a public school board in the province is threatening the same thing.

“This raises human rights and Charter issues,” law professor Jennifer Koshan said.

“Even if the board says it would never discipline students or teachers, the impact that this would have on their behaviour and their sense of dignity would still potentially amount to a violation of our laws.”

Heritage Christian Academy is one of seven religious schools run by Palliser and among dozens that became part of the public system after a 1988 change to the School Act allowed local boards to establish faith-based alternative programs.

Formerly a private school, HCA joined the Palliser district in 2006 after Calgary’s public school board rejected their proposal.

Students at the K-12 facility are funded at the same rate as those who attend public and separate schools.

Unlike most alternative programs in Alberta, the school society also receives an annual lease payment from the province for use of its McKnight Blvd facility, some $427,000 this year.

Mark Ramsankar, president of the Alberta Teachers Association, said the board needs to reconsider its agreement with the school society.

“If they want to dip fully into the public purse, they have to accept the other side of the coin that says students and teachers should be accepted without prejudice and discrimination.”

The agreement says all staff at the school, including the principal, must be “mutually acceptable” to the board and the society. If both agree that an employee has failed to respect the covenant, then Palliser says it will attempt to transfer the person out of the school as permitted by law.

If discrimination or unequal treatment is alleged as a result, the agreement says the school society will indemnify the board for any resulting damages, fines, and legal costs.

In addition to refraining from sexual immorality as set out in various biblical excerpts, the covenants also require students and teachers to “avoid the appearance of evil and use discernment” when choosing clothing and entertainment activities, defined in the draft version as including television, movies, live productions and “social dancing.”