Davies writes ministry on Fort Nelson sexual education cards

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Peace River North MLA Dan Davies wrote a letter to B.C.’s health and education ministries concerning the “inappropriate” learning material given to Fort Nelson students earlier this month.

In the letter on March 16th, Davies called the information handed out “grossly inappropriate for any grade” and called on the ministries to provide specifics on how they will prevent further incidents like this from happening in the future. 

“Constituents in my riding, specifically parents of students, need strong reassurances that this matter is being taken seriously,” Davies said in the letter. 

Davies also said a similar incident happened last year, and parents were told it wouldn’t happen again.

“The fact that it did happen again further explains parent’s continued outrage.”

Students reportedly received a deck of cards from ‘A-Z’ on sexual slang from a Northern Health nurse after presenting to a grade 8 and 9 class at Fort Nelson Secondary School about sexual health. 

The school issued an apology for the incident earlier this month, saying the resources handed out were outside of the curriculum’s parameters. The letter also included steps the school was taking to ensure these incidents would not occur again. 

Northern Health later responded to the incident in what Davies called a “non-apology” in an interview with Energeticcity.ca. 

“Northern Health, and the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Education need to own up and admit that there was a mistake made,” Davies said. 

Davies also stated that while he understood the importance of sexual education, what was given out to students was “over the line.” He believes the ministries and Northern Health should issue an apology to the residents of Fort Nelson and other communities that had “similar incidents” occur.

B.C.’s Ministry of Health has contacted Davies to speak about the incident.