Saskatchewan school divisions must now share change room policies with province

Effective today, school divisions in Saskatchewan must share their change room policies with the province and make them publicly available.

In January, the government said all schools must have a policy that upholds the privacy, dignity and comfort of students.

That announcement came after Premier Scott Moe said it would be his “first order of business” after the fall election to ban “biological boys” from changing alongside “biological girls.”

Moe recanted that stance soon after the Oct. 28 election after an online publication ran a story outlining concerns surrounding two 12-year-old trans students using a girl’s change room at a Saskatchewan school.

Advocates have said many divisions already have policies about student privacy and safety in place and that LGBTQ2S+ students could be put at risk.

At the time of the province’s announcement, school divisions that already had a change room policy in place were:

• Good Spirit School Division
• Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division
• Ile-A-La Crosse School Division
• Living Sky
• Lloydminster Catholic School Division
• Lloydminster Public School Division
• Northern Lights School Division
• Northwest School Division
• Prairie South Schools
• Prairie Spirit School Division
• Prairie Valley School Division
• Prince Albert Catholic School Division
• Regina Catholic School Division
• Regina Public School Division
• Sask Rivers School Division
• Saskatoon Public School Division
• Southeast Cornerstone   

In January, the Ministry of Education said it expected school divisions to come up with policies in collaboration with relevant parties such as students, parents and teachers. The Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) welcomed the decision.

“[It’s] essentially respectful of the autonomy of boards of education, which is something our organization has long lobbied. That’s a hill that we stand on, very loudly, that our structure is set up the way it is for a very good reason,” SSBA President Shawn Davidson said in January.

• Sask. requiring school divisions to create change room policies that respond to ‘local input’
• Local school divisions react to Sask. change room policy

The province said that it will continue to monitor the situation to ensure local input is being respected and heard.

Keeping local school divisions in charge of their own policies was a relief to some who felt it never should have come up for debate in the first place.

“My relief is that we have clear guidance from the Saskatchewan Human Rights Code that gender identity is a protected ground,” University of Regina professor J. Skelton said in January. “It’s clear that everyone has a right to use spaces that best represent their gender identity, so we have some clear guidance there.”

With files from Rory MacLean, Wayne Mantyka and The Canadian Press