The word ‘family’ has caused controversy for this Ontario school board. Here’s why

The Waterloo Region District School Board has been talking a lot about the word “family” this month.

The board has released two separate statements so far in June after media reports and rumours circulated online that teachers were being taught the word “family” is racist.

It stems from a professional development day training session in November 2023 when teachers from Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School near Baden, Ont., discussed several words and what they meant to students, the school board says.

Screengrabs from a presentation called “Dismantling Whiteness at W-O: Words Matter” have appeared on alternative media sites such as Juno News and Rebel News. The photo of a slide show presentation shows that the word family has been “identified as harmful by our racialized students.”

The Juno News headline reads: “School board trains staff that the term ‘family’ is harmful, racist.” 

In a video report, which was posted to YouTube on June 6, Rebel News senior editor Tamara Ugolini was critical of the board.

“When someone’s telling you that the term ‘family’ is rooted in white supremacy and to dismantle the family unit because it’s rooted in patriarchy, you can tell them where to go,” Ugolini says on the video.

Maedith Radlein, chair of the Waterloo Region District School Board, says the training materials reprinted by those media outlets were shared out of context “and interpreted incorrectly.”

“That screenshot was interpreted to mean that what was being said was that we are against family. That screenshot was, in fact, part of a larger presentation that was a discussion about language,” Radlein told CBC K-W’s The Morning Edition host Craig Norris on Wednesday.

Radlein says people have been emailing board staff and trustees and “are, of course, very upset because if that was indeed a message it would be something to be very concerned about.”

“I would like to unequivocally state that that is not our message. We value families and we work with them every day as we seek to help their students achieve and enjoy their school experience,” she said.

LISTEN | Waterloo Region District School Board chair discusses controversy over the word ‘family’:

2 statements

The school board issued its first statement on June 6, stating they were aware of the media reports and wanted to clarify and provide context around what had been reported.

“The session explored how different communities may experience public institutions differently, and how educators can be thoughtful and inclusive in their communication,” the statement said.

“These discussions are part of our ongoing commitment to human rights, equity and learning.”

The second statement was released June 10. It was a letter to the community from Radlein in which she noted “the word ‘family’ and what it represents is integral to all we do.”

The alternative media reports say the training was offered by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF).

Dave VandenBerg, president of OSSTF District 24, said in an email to CBC News that the slides in the Juno News post were not from a presentation created by the teacher’s union.

“All staff meetings include time for OSSTF. It seems that the inclusion of OSSTF time at the end of the meeting was misunderstood to mean that OSSTF created the presentation,” he said. 

The school board told CBC News the presentation was prepared by school board staff.

Reports linked to parental rights movement: Researcher

Lisa Gasson-Gardner is an assistant professor of religious studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary and researches new religious movements. She says the messaging in the reporting of this story by alternative media outlets appears to be linked to the parental rights movement.

“Folks who are concerned about critical race theory are also concerned about parents having rights, are also concerned about gender ideology,” she said.

Gasson-Gardner says grassroots groups who are part of this movement know how to communicate. They say things that “seem obviously true,” like parents should be informed about what their children are learning about in school, but then there’s an underlying message the average reader may miss.

“Consider that, when we say, ‘Oh, we want to have a neutral classroom or a politics-free classroom,’ what is neutral that we don’t talk about?” she said.

Gasson-Gardner says parental rights groups are good at mobilizing and she’s seen evidence they’ve worked to get people elected to school boards in Alberta and Ontario. That’s why she says it’s important to understand who the people are who run for these positions, especially with Ontario municipal elections set for October 2026.

“If you care about education, you have to pay attention to what’s happening,” she said.

Aim to create ‘moral panic’

Carmen Celestini is a full-time lecturer of religious studies at the University of Waterloo. She says there are also groups who are attempting to create “moral panic” around critical race theory in education.

Critical race theory is the idea that racial bias is inherent in certain systems, including legal and social institutions.

She says the arguments being made in the reports by alternative media are similar to anti-critical race theory posts in the U.S.

They “believe that [critical race theory] is an attack on national values and beliefs. Those values are expressed in their beliefs and values with little concern for others,” Celestini said.

“The school board should respond and be transparent in addressing issues such as this,” Celestini said.

“Yet, those who believe these negative narratives most likely have distrust in the institutions such as education and legacy media, so the board will not be converting the mindset of those who believe this, but will engage those who may have heard about this.”

Board ‘meeting the needs of all students’

Radlein said the training session on language took place on a professional development day and they looked at a number of words. Family was one of the words.

“The message was that the word family does not mean the same thing to everybody,” Radlein said.

Radlein said school board staff need to educate themselves and be aware of where they may be assuming something about students or have an unconscious bias.

She says this isn’t the first time the board has been a target for people who don’t agree with their philosophies. 

“I certainly think that the initiatives that our board does around truth and reconciliation, around equity, about gender identification and orientation, I certainly think that that is a lightning rod for many groups that have differing opinions,” Radlein said.

“I cannot speak as to why this is happening, but I do know that we are a board that is known for our commitment to meeting the needs of all students, to welcoming everybody, no matter who they are. And some people may not agree with that approach.”