A backlash has emerged among parents in Barrie, Ontario after the Canadian Mental Health Association handed out a harm reduction pamphlet titled “safer snorting” at a local high school.
One parent and member of the Facebook group “Barrie Concerned Citizens” shared that students at Barrie North Collegiate Institute received the pamphlet alongside condoms.
“I do not know if the teachers and principal is aware but I sure hope complaints are made,” wrote James Buccos in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “This is absolutely despicable. Yes we are all aware our kids are going to do what they want when they aren’t home. But to hand out a book that teaches them how to safely snort coke is wrong on so many levels. We have a serious drug problem as it is and now this?”
He continued: “I am beyond discusted (sic). I am not aware of other high schools being given this but parents, you may want to have a chat with your child about it. Contact the school also and file a complaint. This cannot be allowed … Wtf is going on?????????”
Kaitlun Stark, another parent in the group, suggested Buccos first ask his child “why they felt the need to take this book and talk to them about the consequences of drug use.”
“I have sat at many educational booths held throughout schools in the (schoolboard district), including booths that contain condoms, information on safe sex, and yes even information on safer drug use and party safety (because surprise! lots of youth use drugs or will be exposed to them by their peers!). Youth are free to take what they need – nothing is forced upon them.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Buccos made a follow-up post claiming victory and included a letter of apology from the school principal.
“CMHA is absolutely wrong in what they did,” Bucco wrote. “Without speaking to parents first before deciding to hand out this woke garbage … Thank you to all the parents who showed their support in standing up for our kids.”
In a letter to parents and guardians dated May 6, Principal Kim Hand acknowledged that representatives from the CMHA were at the school and that students were invited to engage with them and access harm reduction information that “has raised some concerns.”
She says those concerns “have been reviewed,” and the result is that resources made available to students will “align appropriately with harm reduction education as outlined in the Ontario curriculum expectations.”
Finally, she apologized “for the concern this has caused.”
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