A rural New Brunswick school is the centre of a petition calling for steps to remove its principal, claiming among other things that a student was allegedly suspended for wearing a shirt that said, “straight pride.”
The three-page petition racked up 390 signatures before being presented to the legislature on Monday.
According to the petition, the student at Belleisle Regional High School was told his shirt was a hate crime, and that he could not return to school for five school days.
The petition is calling the response discrimination.
“Whereas disciplinary action appears to have been based solely on the content of the message on the shirt, raising concerns of viewpoint discrimination and the unequal application of school policies,” the petition said.
“If the punishment is linked to the student’s identity or beliefs, and if others with different identities or beliefs are treated more favourably, this is discrimination under the New Brunswick Human Rights Act, Equality rights,” it added.
Among the signatories were three Progressive Conservative MLAs, including former education minister Bill Hogan.
The district is disputing the claims.
A spokesperson for the Anglophone School District South said in a statement that the petition included many false assertions, including that anyone was suspended for a hate crime.
To learn more about the district’s response, what the province’s PC leader has to say about the signatures and what one LGBTQ+ advocate has to say about “straight pride” watch the video above.