https://nationalpost.com/opinion/catholic-school-has-student-arrested-for-expressing-catholic-beliefs
Catholic school has student arrested for expressing Catholic beliefs
Student: 'I said there were only two genders and you were born either a male or a female and that got me into trouble'
That Canada is becoming less tolerant comes as no surprise, but even so a Catholic high school getting one of their 16-year-old students arrested is a bit of a shock, especially when the heart of the issue is his religious beliefs.
Josh Alexander was arrested by police Monday afternoon for breaching an exclusion order, but the real crime that the student is being punished for is upholding his Catholic beliefs and doing so in what some would no doubt think is a defiant and troublesome manner.
Josh, a Christian, believes there are only two genders, that people can’t switch genders, and that male students shouldn’t use girls’ washrooms. But expressing those views in a classroom discussion on gender at St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Renfrew, Ont., got him suspended.
“I got suspended for comments made during a class discussion,” said Josh in an interview. “It was about male students using female washrooms, gender dysphoria and male breastfeeding. Everyone was sharing their opinions on it, any student who wanted to was participating, including the teacher.
“I said there were only two genders and you were born either a male or a female and that got me into trouble. And then I said that gender doesn’t trump biology.”
“Freedom once taken for granted is lost,” the Grade 11 student added. “Freedom of religion is probably one of our most important freedoms so I’m not going to surrender it in the face of persecution.
“It just goes to show how little freedom of expression we have in our country.”
James Kitchen, a lawyer from the Liberty Defense Fund which is representing Josh, said in a statement that the student was told he could only return to school “if he agreed not to use the ‘dead name’ of any transgender student and agreed to exclude himself from his two afternoon classes because those classes are attended by two transgender students who disapprove of Josh’s religious beliefs.”
Josh said he had never “dead named” anyone, that is referred to their previous name before transitioning.
“Compelling Josh to utter falsehoods regarding gender contrary to his beliefs and segregating him from classes are repugnant manifestations of religious discrimination,” said Kitchen.
Matters escalated when Josh was later served with an exclusion order.
On Monday, when he tried to go school, the cops were called and he got arrested.
“I walked into one of my classes. I sat down and everyone looked pretty surprised to see me there. Within two minutes the vice-principal was in the classroom asking me to leave,” Josh said.
He left the class and “almost immediately I was met with the police.” Josh was put in the back of a cruiser, driven off property and later released and charged with trespassing.
Some will say Josh knew what he was doing, that he was breaking the rules by trespassing and he suffered the consequences.
But is that the society we want to become? Arresting 16-year-old kids for turning up at school when they’ve been suspended for their religious beliefs? Was there no other way? Could the school not have tried harder to find a solution? Was calling the police really the only option?