The tape of the private Edmonton Catholic School Board meeting is grainy but the words said by the Catholic priest are, at least to one woman, rather clear.

“Children are given many opportunities as they progress and grow in life,” says Father Dean Dowle, as the mother of a seven-year-old transgender girl sits across from him, discussing her daughter's gender transition and how the Edmonton Catholic Board is — or is not — going to accommodate it.

The discussion about the girl has, to this point in the audio, been amicable. The mother has told her daughter's story — how, as soon as she could speak, she said she was a girl, and how, after being bullied, she cried and said she was trapped in a boy's body.

Dowle has offered a thought: This is a large decision for a seven-year-old to make. Then, he offers another.

“I'm just wondering,” Dowle continues. “What are some of the disciplinary measures that are provided at home? Provisions, parameters, boundaries.”

The mother remains calm, but doesn't back down. “Father, may I ask you when you knew you were a boy,” she asks.

“There's no difference with my child.”

The implication made by Dowle at the January meeting, the mother told Metro Wednesday after sharing the audio, was that her daughter's gender transition — and resulting requests that she be allowed to use the girls' bathroom and to not be bullied at school — could be disciplined away.

It suggested, the mother says, that if she were to just give her child gendered “parameters” to think inside of, “then he won't be like this.”

The mother, who will remain anonymous to protect her daughter's identity, had asked for the meeting, one day after a doctor had diagnosed her daughter with gender dysphoria and told the mother he'd “never seen” a child so sure of her gender, according to the mother.

In the room were members of the Catholic board's Commitment to Inclusive Communities Team — Chris Cicchini, Dave Zacharko, Robert Martin, the girl's teacher and her school's principal (details we will not share to ensure the girl remains anonymous), as well as the mother, her father and, for unexplained reasons, Father Dowle.

The group was discussing next steps — the girl had already transitioned was now being bullied for how she looked.

The meeting, the mother says, was what she thought would be a collaboration to make school safe for her daughter again.

“At first I wholeheartedly thought that they were going to help us, that they were going to be on our side and work with us,” the mother says.

“And then that conversation happened. And then (Father Dowle) asked me to turn off the recorder.”

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She says she refused.

The mother says she's coming forward with the recording to show the thinking that she's up against in allowing her daughter a safe and happy life at the Edmonton Catholic School Board school.

All people in the January meeting were aware they were being recorded.

On Tuesday, the board was unable to decide on a proposed policy to accommodate transgender students in its schools.

Hours before that meeting, board trustee Larry Kowalczyk told CBC in an interview that transgender people have “a mental disorder.”

Kowalczyk said, and reaffirmed in an email to constituents days later, “I see that as a mental disorder, my faith sees it as a mental disorder.”

Kowalczyk has been embroiled in controversy as a trustee before: in 2012 for swearing at the board superintendent and earlier this year for voting against a program to identify child sex abuse victims.

Education Minister David Eggen said he prefers to see these issues resolved locally, but wouldn’t rule that out.

“It’s my job to make sure boards are providing safe schools for students and to enforce the law,” he said. “I will do whatever it takes to meet that responsibility.”

If the province doesn't legislate province-wide policy, said Kristopher Wells, a professor and advocate for gender minorities, what happened Tuesday will happen again.

“We know many are resistant,” he said. “The government has to act. Every day we don’t have a policy is another day LGBT youth are at risk in their schools. Evidence shows policy is protection.”

With files from Braeden Jones Metro News