T.O. school board to tackle animal dissection

Ottawa Citizen and National Post
March 30, 2005
April Lindgren
CanWest News Service

TORONTO - Ontario Education Minister Gerard Kennedy is questioning the priorities of Toronto school board trustees who tonight will debate whether students with weak stomachs or moral or ethical objections should be exempted from animal dissections in high school biology classes.

"I'm skeptical about whether it deserves attention," Kennedy told reporters Tuesday. "If there are some small groups of kids that need exemptions, we've been providing those (exemptions) for years in a whole range of areas, so I don't think this is a matter for broad political debate."

Kennedy nonetheless said the province will not be intervene if the Toronto board adopts a motion now before committee that says teachers must inform students verbally, and in writing, they have the right to withdraw from dissection activities.

"I don't think we're going to have a frog crisis between us (the Liberal government) and the Toronto board."

Kennedy, who said he had no problem cutting up frogs when he was a high school student, was commenting on a motion from Toronto trustee Josh Matlow that will be debated tonight by the board's program and school services committee.

Matlow, a vegetarian, said he became interested in the matter after discovering the Vancouver school board plans to tackle the issue.

While current education ministry guidelines allow students with moral or ethical objections to opt out and do a computerized virtual dissection, Matlow says the option isn't well known or publicized.

"I want students to know what rights they have," Matlow said Tuesday. "In the case of dissection, it's a very, very personally difficult issue for a lot of students and I want to make sure that the school board makes options readily available to them and that they are both verbally and in written form given notification of their rights."

In the motion he is taking to the committee tonight, Matlow states "teachers should be aware that some students may dislike handling parts of animals and others may object on cultural, religious or ethical grounds.

"No pressure should ever be exerted on students to take part in these activities. Models of skeletons or body organs can sometimes provide a useful alternative to using animal parts. Videos and interactive CD's can also be used."

Matlow, whose proposal will be presented to a full board meeting April 13 if it is adopted by the committee, said he has received an "avalanche" of e-mail and telephone calls from students, teachers and former students supporting his action.

The Toronto board is just the latest to tackle the dissection issue.

The Vancouver school board has indicated it will discuss the matter at an upcoming board meeting. In 1998, the South Shore district school board in Nova Scotia became the first board in Canada to put in place an official policy giving students the right to opt out of animal dissections in class.

Matlow says some American states, including Florida, California, Pennsylvania and New York have also adopted similar approaches in their high schools.