An Abbotsford school trustee has written a letter to senior politicians criticizing their calls for controversial Chilliwack trustee Barry Neufeld to resign.
Cindy Schafer sent the letter to Education Minister Rob Fleming and B.C. School Trustees Association (BCSTA) president Gordon Swan in late January. Fleming, Swan and Neufeld’s own school board have all called on him to resign following his repeated comments critical of education materials about sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI).
Neufeld has refused these demands and has said he will run for re-election in October.
In a November statement, Fleming called Neufeld’s statements “bigoted” and harmful to LGBTQ students.
“This sort of shameful behaviour can and will lead to suicide and this is unacceptable,” Fleming wrote.
But Schafer told The News it’s wrong to call for Neufeld’s resignation without some form of court ruling against him. His objections to SOGI materials shouldn’t be treated any differently than any other time a trustee disagrees with provincial policies, she said.
“I was just baffled because we have different disagreements all the time,” she said. “You don’t agree with Barry? You don’t re-elect him. You don’t agree with me? Don’t re-elect me.”
Schafer said her letter expressed her opinion – and not that of her board – and “in no way intended to debate gender fluid ideology or sexual orientation based on biology.”
She said she has some concerns about “honouring parents’ rights” when it comes to SOGI education materials. “I’m not going to get into that … I’m not going to go down that rabbit trail.”
“What I’m talking about here is protecting democracy.”
An education ministry spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.
Swan was unavailable for comment Tuesday and did not respond directly to questions about Schafer’s letter in an email to The News.
Swan said Neufeld attended without incident a Monday BCSTA Fraser Valley branch meeting in Abbotsford. That meeting was initially planned to take place in Maple Ridge but was cancelled by the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows board when Neufeld said he intended to attend despite being asked not to.
Board chair Mike Murray wrote a letter to the branch’s president Shelley Carter explaining the decision: “Given that Trustee Barry Neufeld, who has indicated his intent to attend this meeting, has publicly expressed views that contravene our longstanding policy and stated values, we must unfortunately decline to host this event at one of our schools.”
The SOGI issue was not on the agenda at Monday’s meeting, Swan said.
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