The Saskatchewan government says schools must have consent of a parent or guardian when changing the preferred pronoun used by students under age 16 in schools.

Saskatchewan also says parents and guardians must be informed of a school’s sexual education curriculum and given the option to decline their child’s participation.

The province recently reviewed the sexual education curriculum after Planned Parenthood took inappropriate sexual material into a high school.

Premier Scott Moe tweeted that Boards of Education must immediately pause involvement with any third-party organization such as the ARC Foundation and its SOGI 123 program which is described as helping educators make schools inclusive and safe for students of all sexual orientations and gender identities (SOGI).

The Arc Foundation website states 62 per cent of 2SLGBTQ+ students still feel unsafe at school.

The provincial NDP leader says the SaskParty government is using “reckless”, “cynical”, and ‘divisive” politics by changing policy for gender and pronoun changes in school.

Carla Beck calls it a new low.

“What we saw today from this government was calculated policy to solve their own political problems and a policy that we fear will put already vulnerable kids at greater risk.”

Beck says she is angry that this is what Education Minister Duncan spent his summer doing when there are other issues to deal with such as education underfunding, larger classrooms and mental health issues.