{"id":184308,"date":"2023-02-24T13:33:43","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T10:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/?p=184308"},"modified":"2023-02-24T13:33:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-24T10:33:43","slug":"canadian-catholic-school-student-who-was-suspended-for-protesting-transgender-bathroom-policy-speaks-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/canadian-catholic-school-student-who-was-suspended-for-protesting-transgender-bathroom-policy-speaks-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Catholic school student who was suspended for protesting transgender bathroom policy speaks out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Josh Alexander, a 16-year-old student in the 11th grade at St. Joseph\u2019s Catholic High School in Canada, was suspended this month for expressing his religious and moral objections to the school\u2019s transgender bathroom policy.<\/p>\n

St. Joseph\u2019s Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ontario, allows males identifying as transgender girls to use bathrooms designated for females.<\/p>\n

Alexander was first suspended for protesting the school\u2019s transgender policy in November, on the grounds he was \u201cbullying.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he tried attending class on Feb. 6, he was subsequently suspended again and arrested for trespassing. He has since been released but remains barred from attending classes through the end of the school year.<\/p>\n

In an EWTN News Nightly interview, Alexander, who is Baptist, explained that after he began attending Catholic school, \u201cvery quickly I was informed by female students that male students were using the female washrooms; this was an issue that came up in class debate and I used that platform to share my opinions as every other student had the opportunity to do, and I quoted some Scripture, I said that there is only two genders. And apparently, because there [are] transgender students in the class, this was considered bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander also voiced his concerns with the transgender bathroom policy with the school administration but was ignored. Along with other concerned students, Alexander organized a school protest but last November, two days before the scheduled event, he was suddenly suspended.<\/p>\n

The protest took place outside the school as planned on Nov. 25. Local groups Arnpour Pride, Renfrew PRIDE, and PFLAG Canada-Renfrew County organized a counterprotest, calling Alexander\u2019s group a \u201cterror organization.\u201d LifeSite News reported that St. Joseph High School informed students participating in Alexander\u2019s protest that they would be banned from accessing school transportation.<\/p>\n

St. Joseph\u2019s claims that Alexander\u2019s actions amount to bullying transgender students. Alexander told EWTN that was not his intent.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy issue wasn\u2019t with the individual students,\u201d Alexander said. \u201cI have an issue with the system that is going to encourage this form of misbehavior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do sympathize with the confused transgender students,\u201d added Alexander, \u201cbecause they\u2019ve been wronged by their parents and by society and by the education system that has pushed this indoctrination on them. But at the same time that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m going to condone their wrongful behavior, especially when it\u2019s a violation of my female peers\u2019 privacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Renfrew County Catholic District School Board, which manages St. Joseph High School and 20 other elementary and secondary schools in the region, addressed the issue in an \u201copen letter\u201d to the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cBullying behavior that creates an unsafe space for our students is not tolerated \u2026 A trans person should not be required to use a separate washroom or change room because others express discomfort or transphobic attitudes, such as, \u2018trans women are a threat to other women,\u2019\u201d Mark Searson, director of education at Renfrew County Catholic District School Board, said in a Feb. 13 statement.<\/p>\n

The Ontario Human Rights Code states that schools should give students access to the bathroom that corresponds with their \u201clived gender identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexander, who is being represented by the law firm Liberty Coalition Canada, plans to file a human rights complaint for violation of his religious freedom.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who hate me, but at the same time, I don\u2019t really care. I did what I believe was right, what was right before God, so at the end of the day I\u2019m happy with that,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\" \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh Alexander, a 16-year-old student in the 11th grade at St. Joseph\u2019s Catholic High School in Canada, was suspended this month for expressing his religious and moral objections to the school\u2019s transgender bathroom policy. St. Joseph\u2019s Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ontario, allows males identifying as transgender girls to use bathrooms designated for females. Alexander […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":184311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184308"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184312,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184308\/revisions\/184312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}