Image: SD33 / The Chilliwack Board of Education (pictured) consists of Teri Westerby (left to right), Margaret Reid, Richard Procee, board chair Willow Reichelt, vice chair Dr. Carin Bondar, David Swankey and Heather Maahs. 

By Mike Vanden Bosch

Chilliwack Board of Education

Chilliwack parent hoping to address school board gets asked to leave meeting

Jun 19, 2024 | 8:39 AM

CHILLIWACK — By speaking in the public participation portion of last week’s school board meeting, Chilliwack resident Judi Chalmer was hoping to provide feedback to the Chilliwack Board of Education about its policies and the rating trustees gave themselves in its board performance review report.

What Chalmer got instead was a request to leave the meeting from Chilliwack school board chair Willow Reichelt, who repeatedly cut Chalmer’s microphone after she urged the board to consider her concerns.

“I was speaking to agenda item 3.1 (board performance review report); I was trying to counter the proficient rating they gave themselves for EDI (equity, diversity and inclusion),” Chalmer said. “It’s pretty hard to talk about EDI with this board without talking about bathrooms and menstrual products.”

Over the past year, Chalmer, a parent of a student enrolled in Chilliwack School District, has been in contact with the school district and board, including chair Willow Reichelt, inquiring as to why SD33 implemented a policy that puts period products, like tampons, in all district bathrooms and facilities.

At its meeting in June 2023, the Board of Education reaffirmed policy 433 providing for menstrual products, including an amendment backed by trustee Teri Westerby. The amended policy added the words “specifically in all variations of washrooms (male, female, gender-neutral).”

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SD33 began rolling out the menstrual products in all bathrooms thereafter.

Prior to their adoption of the amended menstrual products policy, SD33 only surveyed students in GSA (Gay Straight Alliance) clubs about providing period products in all district facilities, not the general student population. SD33 used the survey results to justify its decision to provide period products in all district bathrooms.

“What was the purpose of this targeted student survey?” Chalmer asked the Chilliwack Board of Education in an email. “Is there documentation of the rationale for directing this survey to GSA students exclusively? I know of at least one elementary school where dispensers showed up in all versions of bathrooms one day. There was no explanation, no education, no reason for most students at this age to need these products, and punishment (going to the office) was issued when little boys played with the products. I value equity and inclusion while also highly valuing the right for families to decide how and when to teach their children about intimate and private matters.”

Board chair Willow Reichelt responded to Chalmer’s concerns in an email by saying the issue of menstrual product dispensers had become a nonissue.

“The rollout of menstrual product dispensers with no education or pre-loading for students was not ideal,” Reichelt wrote in an email to Chalmer dated April 29, 2024. “This was a lesson for the board to think about how/when policies will be implemented after they are passed and to think about strategies to avoid unintended consequences. There was indeed some confusion and vandalism right after dispensers were installed. Thankfully, after several months of the dispensers being in all washrooms, they have essentially become a nonissue. The Board’s position continues to be that all people who menstruate should have access to barrier-free menstrual products. Transgender boys may menstruate, so menstrual products should be in all washrooms. Menstrual products are a common sight in advertising, on shelves in grocery stores and pharmacies, and in bathroom cupboards in most homes, so the sight of a dispenser on a bathroom wall will likely not be too shocking, especially with improved education at the school level going forward.”

Chalmer met with SD33 Superintendent Rohan Arul-pragasam to air her concerns, believing she might get a chance to address the Chilliwack Board of Education at some point.

However, at the June 11th Chilliwack school board meeting, Chalmer had her microphone cut three times before Reichelt asked her to leave the meeting.

“I have been banned from talking about menstrual products and bathrooms,” said Chalmer. “Willow keeps claiming that my questions and concerns about the dispensers have been answered. But all along my questions and concerns do not get answered, I get responded to with terms like vandalism, bigotry, discrimination, these terms do not answer any of my questions or relieve any of my concerns. They just bring forth new concerns and questions.”

SD33 has a policy that allows anyone who identifies with a certain gender to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Chalmer says she’s concerned about this.

“When I talked of a 7-year-old student feeling uncomfortable with the idea that someone with different private parts might see his private parts, Willow answered with [a] bigotry comment,” Chalmer said. “This is what she claims as answering questions. This is what I was trying to point out. How can we have EDI, when they see uncomfortable students as bigots. That is the opposite of EDI!”

Chalmer says she feels frustrated by the lack of understanding from Reichelt and the school district itself.

“I have worked successfully with some of the most vulnerable and challenging children for 25 years in after school programs, respect care programs, home school programs, and all levels of public school, most recently elementary,” Chalmer said. “This experience is what compels me to continue to advocate for the children in opposition to this enhanced policy. It’s about the privacy, dignity, and mental health of children. To think that because vandalism is not occurring with these dispensers that they are a ‘nonissue’ is naive, and shows a lack of understanding of the school community. The issues are much more silent and insidious now and are showing up in our young students’ mental health.”