Anti-SOGI protestors force Surrey school board meeting to end early

Surrey teachers say over a dozen anti-SOGI protestors forced Board of Education trustees to end their meeting early Wednesday night.

“It was actually a really scary space to be in. I have not experienced that in any of the board hearings,” said Jatinder Bir, president of the Surrey Teachers Association.

Video taken of the meeting shows protesters inside the room, one with a megaphone and others carrying placards.

“There was a fair amount of heckling and some jeering in the crowd. The board was anticipating some type of disruption because we were notified on Twitter and Facebook that an anti-SOGI group would be attending and would be protesting,” Surrey Schools Board Chair Laurie Larsen told CityNews.

Footage of the disruption was shared online by one of the protest organizers.

CityNews reached out to him but didn’t hear back before publication.

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When it started, Larsen says she was in the middle of reading a statement condemning people’s behaviour at the past few board meetings, saying they were using question period as a platform to spread hate and misinformation.

“He started reciting anti-SOGI words, some vulgarity. At that time we were about 20 minutes into question period. I adjourned the meeting and left,” Larsen recalled, describing the actions of one of the protesters.

“There were a lot of insults. A lot of abusive language. They were shouting that folks were pedophiles in education. That was really upsetting,” added Bir.

Bir says about 20 teachers attended the meeting wearing rainbow colours.

“I was afraid. I was afraid for my colleagues,” she said. “It’s sad to think that our students, our members in schools, would have to even have that hate being spewed in those safe spaces.”

The disruption has forced the school district to consider changes to future meetings.

Larsen says next time, they may restrict people from school district events.

“We can ask them to leave. We can not allow them onto school property. We can limit their attention by blocking question period for an amount of time or asking that just written questions be in,” she explained.

Bir says the BC Human Rights Code and the Canadian Charter protect sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression, and people need to look past the misinformation.

“Find out. Seek that information. Learn for yourselves. Because this is ultimately about human rights. This is about making sure our spaces are safe, inclusive, and welcoming spaces,” she said.