A Canadian school board has reversed an earlier decision to ban the use of the word “gun” in district spelling tests – action it had taken after a complaint from a first-grader’s pacifist parents, reports the Ottawa Citizen.
 Chloe Sousa and the offending word. (Photo: Ottawa Citizen/Canada.com) |
As WorldNetDaily reported, Amanda Sousa, mother of 7-year-old Chloe Sousa, a student at the Lombardy, Ontario, Public School, had complained to her daughter’s teacher and principal after the girl came home with a spelling list earlier this month that included the word “gun.” Sousa and her husband, who consider themselves pacifists, were shocked that the offending word was on the list.
“I realize people hunt in this area, but I still don’t think that warrants the teaching of this word to my daughter or any other child,” Sousa told the Citizen at the time.
“The word gun is synonymous with death. I’m racking my brain trying to figure out why a 7-year-old would need to learn this word.”
After a letter to the teacher and phone call to the principal, she received an apology from both the teacher and Terry Simzer, a PR person representing the school board.
Simzer explained to the Citizen that the word gun had been in the curriculum for a number of years, but that as of the day of Souza’s complaint, it had been removed from the first-grade spelling test.
Last week, the school board reversed the earlier decision, offering instead a policy whereby a parent can have an offending spelling word removed from his or her child’s list for testing purposes.
“At the end of the day, the word ‘gun’ is as permissible and relevant as any other short-vowel word,” Simzer is quoted as saying on the Upper Canada District School Board website.
Gino Giannandrea, director of the school board, announced Friday that the word “gun” can even be used in Lombardy’s first-grade class, subject to the discretion of the teacher and principal, reports the Citizen.
According to the report, Sousa was satisfied with the new arrangement. She told the Citizen she had no regrets about raising the issue, but has been dismayed by public reaction. In letters to the editor, on websites and on talk-radio shows, response has been malicious, she said.
“I’ve been called a bad mother, a horrible person. People have been telling Chloe that her mother did a bad thing. One person even said, on a website, ‘If she doesn’t want her daughter to see a gun, I’ll show her a gun.’ Is that a threat?”
Chloe’s class has moved on from “G” to “H” words now.
“And you know what?” Sousa asked. ” ‘Hand grenade’ wasn’t on it. So I’m happy.”
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