Cut queasy pupils some slack: Trustee

Toronto Star, A1
Monday March 28th 2005
Debra Black
Staff Reporter

Most people would agree that cutting up dead animals to see what made them tick is pretty yucky especially if you're a student and have to do it before lunch.

And, for others, it's a real problem, one that violates religious or ethical boundaries.

So Toronto school board trustee Josh Matlow wants to cut the kids a break: If they want to opt out of the dissection class in high school biology, they should be told they can.

And on Wednesday he'll be asking the Toronto District School Board's program and school services committee to approve new rules that say just that.

"We're not asking that (dissection class) be banned," Matlow said in an interview. "We're just asking that alternatives be available, and that students know their rights."

Ivy Farquhar, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Northern Secondary School, thinks it's about time.

"I know vegetarians and religious people at my school who don't like the idea of working with a real animal," said Farquhar. "It just disgusts them and they really object to it."

And when that happens, Farquhar said, "they should be able to opt out."

Students taking high school biology are routinely asked to slice open animals, like dead fetal pigs, to see how they're put together uncovering and handling the digestive, circulatory and other systems they've been studying in class.

But for some high school students the idea's downright unethical. Others have real religious concerns.

And for some it's as simple as the yuck factor and a heaving stomach, especially first thing in the morning.

Matlow says students should be told they have not only the option, but the right, to skip such classes without penalty academic or social.

Under current Ontario Ministry of Education guidelines, students who object to animal dissection or don't want to participate for moral or religious reasons are allowed to opt out and do a virtual dissection, using any one of about 400 different computer software programs licensed by the ministry.

But Matlow, the trustee for St. Paul's, says that's not good enough too vague, too discretionary. Opting out of dissection class now, he says, depends all too much on the school and the teacher.

"It's all just too piecemeal."

In fact, he points out, students often don't even know they have the right to refuse dissection class. And many who do, Matlow suggests, are afraid to speak up because they're worried about feeling vulnerable and being embarrassed and are ultimately bullied into participating.

His goal? A firm policy that makes it clear that students are within their rights to refuse to participate in dissecting an animal.

"There is no policy at the Toronto District School Board that entrenches the rights of a student for ethical, moral or religious reasons to opt out of dissecting animals," said Matlow. If the committee approves his motion Wednesday it will go to the full board for debate and vote April 13.

"This is to give our students an option, a choice," Matlow said. "We accept there is a diversity of views on this issue, so students who do have ethical, moral and religious concerns should have a legitimate choice or option."

Matlow's proposed motion comes on the heels of similar moves by the Vancouver school board. Debate on a proposal there to allow students to opt out of animal dissection is slated to go before the Vancouver school board shortly.

In 1998 Nova Scotia's South Shore district school board became the first school board in Canada to officially adopt a policy that gives students the right to refuse to perform animal dissection in class.

And according to Matlow, many American states including Florida, California, Pennsylvania and New York have also given high school students the right to opt out.

"I believe this is a Charter of Rights and Freedom issue," said Matlow who is also working on establishing a student bill of rights for Toronto students. And he is calling on students, teachers and parents alike to make their voices heard on this issue, asking them to appear before the committee and let the trustees know what they think. "I want all of my colleagues to understand this is really an issue about the rights of the student."

Northern's Farquhar said she is less than thrilled with the idea of dissecting a fetal pig, but plans to bite the bullet and just do it. "I'm pretty grossed out about it," admits Farquhar. "But I think it's something you have to deal with. A lot of our experiments are gross."

Her classmates were all told that they had an option of doing a computer version of a dissection if they wanted, but she has decided it would be better to actually do the dissection. "I guess from what my teacher has said it sounds like it's really valuable to the course. I guess I'll end up doing it because most of the class is doing a live dissection."

So what will she and her classmates be looking for when they cut open their animals?

"We have to find all their different systems the digestive system and the circulatory systems. We're supposed to examine all the systems we've been studying in class."

Matlow's motion is also supported by two other Toronto school trustees: Bruce Davis and Irene Atkinson. Says Atkinson: "I think they should have a choice if they find it absolutely revolting they should do something else. When I was in high school I was paired with a young man who eventually became a surgeon. He did the cutting up and I just vaguely looked on. I don't really think that having to watch a frog being dissected is going to make or break somebody's educational experience."

Others such as Toronto District School Board chair Sheila Ward are less enthusiastic about the cause. "It's hardly top of the list in terms of important issues. It's never been raised in my years as trustee."