The teachers of a primary school in Quebec who had decided not to celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day with their students this year are backtracking, after the controversy raised on social networks.
• Read also: Controversial initiative: Mother’s Day replaced by Parents’ Day in a Quebec school
“Considering the heterogeneity of the families” of their students, second-year teachers at the La Chanterelle school had instead decided to highlight “Parents’ Day” by the end of the year, could we read in a message that has circulated widely on social networks.
However, after consultation with management, it was finally decided on Wednesday that the DIY originally planned for Parents’ Day will be brought home by the end of the week to mark Mother’s Day, May 14, the door says. – spokesperson for the school services center of the Capital, Marie-Claude Lavoie.
Father’s Day will also be celebrated in June, she says.
- Listen to the Montpetit-Fortin meeting broadcast live every day at 1 p.m. 55 via QUB-radio :
Mme Lavoie reiterated that this initiative by the teachers was based on “good intentions”, since some students in their classes do not have a mother or father or live in foster care.
After the controversy raised on social networks, the service center had however admitted on Tuesday evening that this communication was “clumsy” and that it could have been “misunderstood or misinterpreted”.
Another school in the Laurentians is backtracking
In addition, another primary school in the Laurentians, which announced a similar decision on Wednesday, backtracked a few hours later.
An elementary school in the Rivière-du-Nord service center had announced to parents that Mother’s Day and Father’s Day would be replaced this year by Parents’ Day.
However, the management changed its mind following the reactions of parents, many of whom denounced the decision.
“There was no bad intention,” said service center spokeswoman Nadyne Brochu.
The latter specifies that this was an isolated initiative and that the service center had not been informed.
Minister Drainville also disagrees
After reacting on Twitter on Tuesday evening, the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, for his part reiterated on Wednesday that he was “not in agreement” with the idea of replacing Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Fathers by Parents Day.
“I understand that in some classes, you have to adapt, (…) you have to find the right balance, but the general principle is that mothers and fathers must not disappear from Quebec schools, it is not about that. There will never be any question of that, ”he said during a press scrum at the National Assembly.