ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A school board in Canada has not made a final decision on whether to offer students a gay-rights component as part of an elective course, the board chair said.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday that Cindy Schafer, the chair of the Abbotsford school board, said the school board is examining concerns from the public about the course, Social Justice 12.
"We felt that parents' rights, parents' family values as well as their cultural values, the way it's approached, almost seems as if those are undermined, if not ignored," Schafer said Monday. "We should actually be concerned about everyone's rights. And I'm not sure that identifying one group over another is the right way to approach it."
The course was added as an elective to the high school curriculum as part of a settlement between the provincial government and a gay couple who won a human rights complaint.
British Columbia Education Minister Shirley Bond said the course is optional, and it's up to school boards to decide whether to offer it.
