Central Okanagan school board chair, Lee-Ann Tiede.

Image Credit: Submitted/reelectlee.com

Lee-Ann Tiede, the new chair of the Central Okanagan school board, has been portrayed as being anti-vaccine and anti-SOGI123 – the provincially mandated sexual orientation and gender identity program.

In an interview with iNFOnews.ca she pushed back against those allegations and said there are more important issues facing the school district.

“I’d like to get down to business with the board,” Tiede said. “I’d like to get to all the issues that we’re dealing with as a school district. We have over-capacity issues. We have 129 portables on our school sites. Those portables don’t come with gymnasiums or washrooms.

“We’ve got French Immersion issues we need to resolve. We’ve got catchment issues. We’ve got a budget of over $300 million. That’s twice the size of the City of Kelowna’s budget. It’s a pretty big task that we have ahead of us.”

When she was elected as board chair last week – replacing retired chair Moyra Baxter – there were fears raised that she was leading a new majority on the board with anti-vax and anti-SOGI sentiments.

READ MORE: Anti-vaxxer, anti-SOGI trustees dominate Central Okanagan school board

When asked up front if it was fair to refer to her as an anti-vaxxer she was quick to say no, even though she voted against vaccine mandates in the schools earlier this year.

She doesn’t see it as a vote against.

“I voted in favour of medical autonomy and the freedom to choose,” Tiede said. “If someone wants to get vaccinated they should have the freedom to choose that but I don’t believe any employer should force any staff person into a medical decision.”

Her answer to questions on SOGI were not as straightforward.

“It’s a provincial component in the curriculum,” Tiede said “We, as trustees, don’t have any power to change that.”

Then she went on to talk about her relationship with the ParentsVoiceBC organization that ran candidates in a number of school districts, many of whom challenged SOGI.

She also referred to SOGI as “politics and propaganda” before the election.

READ MORE: Why the sexual orientation policy in Kelowna schools is not 'propaganda'

Leading up to the Oct. 15 election she was asked to participate in a Zoom meeting with a group of people from all around the province interested in running for trustee positions for the first time around the province, she said.

“That group didn’t even have a name at that point,” Tiede said. “There were pro-vax, anti-vax, pro-SOGI, anti-SOGI people on that call.”

That group later took on the name ParentsVoiceBC and, Tiede contends, were made up of people with diverse opinions on vaccines and SOGI.

“For anyone to lump that group into any category is ill-informed,” she said. “They helped people run for election but they weren’t all of the same mind.”

Was she aligned with ParentsChoiceBC?

“No.” Tiede said. “I was connected through a mutual friend, and there were other trustees from around the province of, all types – standing trustees already – who just answered questions on what it was like to be a trustee.”

Did they help her get elected?

“How could they help me get elected?” Tiede asked. “The point was for new trustees so, trying to find a financial agent and what does that mean, and how do you file your paperwork and what’s a strong campaign platform that you can build. Those are the types of conversations we were having.”

As for SOGI itself, she said she’s fine with the first two components about being inclusive and having safe, inclusive environments.

It’s the third element, the provision of books and other resources on things like sexual orientation and gender identity, that she says she voted against.

“The first time I asked about SOGI, I was asking because I didn’t know what it was,” Tiede said. “I was labelled as anti-SOGI right at that moment, from what I could tell from the reaction in the room. I wanted to be informed so I spent the next three months researching it on my own.”

“I voted for parents to have the right to raise their children the way they want to,” Tiede said. “If they want to raise them in a home where they believe in biblical values, they should have the right to raise that child the way they want to. If they want to raise the child in a home where they support them transitioning medically before they go through puberty, they should have the right to do that. That’s a family matter. It’s not a school matter but we do need to be inclusive for all of our students.”

It's the nature of the materials available to students in school libraries that has been contentious with people like ParentsVoiceBC.

“If they don’t want their child going to school and looking at a book with cartoon versions of pornography, then they should able know their child is safely going to school and maintaining their innocence,” Tiede said.

She was referring to allegations that there were pornographic materials in the schools but she was away for that presentation.

“I’d like to see what they’re talking about but, I’m told, that book was either moved or removed but I haven’t even discussed that with the superintendent,” Tiede said. “There’s a lot of things we need to discuss prior to getting back into that type of discussion.”

Does that mean she’s fine with all the other SOGI materials in the schools since she spent three months researching it and it’s been around since 2018?

“I can’t comment on books in our library because I haven’t seen them myself,” Tiede said. I would have to look into it. It hasn’t been a bee in my bonnet. SOGI has never been in any of my campaign platforms.”

Will she be looking into it?

“I might but it’s not at the top of my priority list,” Tiede said.

The first thing she wants to do is sit down with Superintendent Kevin Kaardal and set the priorities for the board for this term, she said.

READ MORE: What SOGI 123 is – and what it isn't

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