The Ontario government is creating what critics are calling a “snitch line” for parents to report teachers who refuse to stop using the repealed 2015 sexual education curriculum.

And Doug Ford warned that educators caught breaking the rules will face consequences.

“We will not tolerate anybody using our children as pawns for grandstanding and political games,” the premier said Wednesday. “Make no mistake, if we find somebody failing to do their job, we will act.”

The warning was issued during Ford’s announcement that public consultations on a new sexual education curriculum, and other key issues, will start next month. Elementary school teachers are to abandon the curriculum introduced in 2015, which has been largely supported by educators and health groups, and revert back to old lesson plans.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Education issued a revised interim Health and Physical Education curriculum for Grades 1 to 8, which was used between 1998 and 2014. High school students, however, will be taught the 2015 curriculum, which was introduced by the Liberals to address current issues such as same-sex marriage, gender and cyberbullying.

The government also unveiled a new website called Fortheparents.ca that is “designed to give parents a portal to provide feedback about concerns related to the curriculum.” And, if parents feel like a teacher is deliberately ignoring the curriculum, they were advised to call the Ontario College of Teachers’ Investigations and Hearing’s Department or file a complaint online.

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Critics slammed the creation of a “snitch line” as a shameful attack against teachers. On social media, some decried it as a “witchhunt to scare teachers into compliance with the curriculum rollback” and others compared it to the federal Conservatives’ ill-fated 2015 election promise to set up a barbaric cultural practices hotline, which was widely condemned as a thinly disguised attack on Muslims.

NDP leader Andrea Horwath tweeted, “Our schools need real investments — not Doug Ford’s ‘snitch line.’”

Also on Twitter, Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, which represents 83,000 public school teachers, wrote, “Doug Ford & the Minister of Ed calling on parents to file complaints against Teachers. Unprecedented, outrageous, and shameful! This is a blatant attack on the professionalism ... of teachers.”

In a statement, Hammond said the government is “manufacturing a crisis,” rather than tackling real issues such as the underfunding of schools.

“Teachers, education professionals and principals have regular communication and relationships with parents and students that have worked well,” he said. “Having a Ministry of Education ‘snitch line’ that bypasses the systems already in place to deal with issues at the school level will prohibit parents and educators from addressing classroom concerns constructively. As we’ve seen from social media, anonymous portals and comment threads are toxic and counter-productive to improving any situation, in this case school culture.”

His comments were echoed, in part, by Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association and Beverley Eckensweiler, president of Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association. Both say there is already a good process in place for parents to make complaints. First they speak with the teacher, then the school principal and then a school board official. And if the issue hasn’t been addressed, then complaints go to the college.

“I’m not really sure, precisely, what the benefit is to this when this process already exists,” said Abraham. “It’s an interesting turn of events that this is where this government has chosen to go with this.”

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Eckensweiler said she wonders how parent complaints will be handled, saying, “They’re going to be kept very, very busy.”

In Toronto, TDSB Chair Robin Pilkey said the board has a Parent Concern Protocol that “already provides parents with an outlet to voice concerns and most importantly, gives them the opportunity to resolve matters.”

Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, which represents 60,000 public high school teachers and support staff from junior kindergarten to university, said it’s “unprecedented” to release a curriculum with an “overt threat of disciplinary action if the curriculum isn’t followed.”

“It isn’t a very productive way of moving forward,” he told the Star, noting the creation of a “snitch line” is also “absolutely unprecedented.”

“I don’t believe that parents are yearning for a time when politicians got into overt conflict with classroom professionals. I don’t think they want to go back to that time and yet that’s the dynamic being created here.”

Liz Stuart, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, which represents 45,000 Catholic school teachers, said she understands the government’s desire to hear more from parents, but hopes the perspectives of professional educators will also be given proper consideration.

“In the meantime, we will continue to deliver the provided curriculum and attend to our students’ needs in accordance with our professional training and judgment,” she said in a statement.

Michelle Aarts, who is running for TDSB trustee in Ward 16, tweeted that the government’s announcement “reads like a witch hunt to scare teachers into compliance with curriculum rollback.”

“It would be awesome if parents went to the site and said all the things that they really appreciate about their teachers and schools,” the mother of three told the Star, adding, “I can’t think of anything more awful than a snitch line.”

Norm Di Pasquale, who’s running for TCDSB trustee in Ward 9, says a “snitch line” would allow parents to “tattle on the teacher if they’re teaching something they disagree with.”

“It’s very disturbing,” he said. “It shows a lack of trust in the entire school system.”

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