Frustrated with what they see as lack of action on the part of the provincial government concerning the schooling of their children, a group of Morinville parents closed the year out by filing a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission.
Donna Hunter and Marjorie Kirsop filed complaints against Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional School Division No. 29 under section 11.1 of the Alberta Human Rights Act. Hunter and parents Tannis Caverly, Rayann Menard and Carol Sparks also sent a complaint under section four of the act.
Hunter and Kirsop’s complaint is that discrimination took place against their children at Morinville’s Notre Dame School. The remaining parents complained under section 4, arguing that their children did not have the same rights customarily available to all people.
Hunter and her sister Carol Sparks no longer live in Morinville, but the other families still do and their children attend Morinville Public School, under the guest management of Sturgeon School Division.
Kirsop is disappointed in the schooling her children receive and maintains it’s not what she had hoped for.
“Donna Hunter and I appealed to the Catholic school board last year on January 17, 2010 and asked for exemption from religious permeation for our children. That was denied, and really, we’re in the same place as we started. Our children do not have equal education,” Kirsop said.
She argues that she never wanted a new school, but instead, wanted her children to be able to opt out of all religion in the school they were attending.
“We have a school provided to us in the Sturgeon district office in a boardroom. My kids get gym once a week and they have no computer room. I have no trustees representing me in Sturgeon School Division. My elected trustees are from the Catholic system so in essence, I have no vote,” Kirsop said.
Tannis Caverly, whose son is in Grade 4 at Morinville Public School said she filed a human rights complaint because she wants him to receive an education from a public school that is free of religion, but she doesn’t want a makeshift classroom with few amenities.
“What we’ve been offered is a band-aid solution on a severed finger,” she said.
Caverly argued that because the Catholic board is also the public board, it has contravened the Alberta Human Rights Act and the NWT School Ordinance Act of 1905, which states no religious instruction will be provided except for one half hour at the end of the day.
“Why is the Catholic board allowed to permeate classes with religious instruction?” Caverly asked.
Catholic division superintendent David Keohane agreed with the parents’ right to file a complaint, but said the matter is being addressed by both the concerned school boards.
“We are working on a solution and we have an interim solution in place. It’s not long-term and we know the concerns of the parents will not go away. But this cannot be changed with the click of a finger,” Keohane said.
“We also need to respect the needs of the majority, and there are 86 students in Morinville [Public] School compared to 1,600 students in our four Catholic schools.”
