Burnaby school board chair backs students' Lady Gaga video

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      The chair of the Burnaby school board claims it’s "sometimes very embarrassing to have the Burnaby name tagged to that group".

      The group Larry Hayes was referring to is Burnaby Parents’ Voice, a new municipal political party created out of the mostly Burnaby-based ad-hoc group of parents, Parents’ Voice, in opposition to the school district’s antihomophobia policy crafted ahead of last November’s civic election.

      BPV was shut out at the polls, but now its members are mobilizing in opposition to a choreographed Lady Gaga–inspired video featuring 1,500 elementary and secondary school students from across the Lower Mainland and New York. On February 27, BPV president Heather Leung penned a letter to Premier Christy Clark and Education Minister George Abbott condemning the initiative.

      Speaking on the antibullying Pink Shirt Day (February 29), Hayes said he’s seen the four-minute video featuring the Gaga tune "Born This Way" several times and has no problem with it.

      "I don’t think a lot of parents are giving their kids enough credit for being wise to the world," Hayes told the Straight by phone. "I think sometimes parents are the ones that are hiding in their caves, and the kids are the ones out there in the schools, where there are lots of colours, lots of languages, and lots of orientations, and for the most part, [the kids] get along with everybody."

      North Burnaby resident and 2011 BPV school-board candidate Helen Ward claimed Lady Gaga "comes with a lot of baggage".

      "The B.C. School Act says schools must inculcate the ‘highest morality’ and that schools must be ‘secular’," Ward said by phone. "The Supreme Court of Canada has defined that as meaning ‘neutral regarding contested beliefs and world-view’. Now, the song ‘Born This Way’ has a whole bunch of statements, theological statements, about God and about sin and about ethics and psychology and a whole bunch of statements that are…she’s putting out a world-view in her song and that’s fine. But when schools, not just a bunch of people, use something as a resource, then their schools are endorsing it."

      In reference to Hayes’s statement regarding BPV, Ward confirmed in a later interview that the political party differs from the ad-hoc group, which includes people from outside of Burnaby. Ward noted that all BPV candidates that ran last November were Burnaby-based parents.

      BPV Letter on Lady Gaga

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      Comments

      6 Comments

      Devin

      Mar 1, 2012 at 10:46am

      American bullshit! Let's not forget accepting things that are different was popular in Canada long before the yanks stumbled upon it!

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      Kieran

      Mar 1, 2012 at 2:41pm

      Why are you running stories that include comments from this fringe group? They came in dead last in that election, and came off as anti-Canadian in their statements. It is lazy journalism to use the inflammatory statements of a small group to sell papers. They misuse the term Burnaby snd Parents in their name - they should be called the "Small-minded voice of indeterminate area".

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      Gary Lee

      Mar 1, 2012 at 4:39pm

      Although I agree they are recieving way too much media attention, the more they get the more ridiculous they look. They do not represent Burnaby voters nor the parents who provided written consent for their children to participate in the video. These hypocrites then have the nerve to launch a misleading "parental authority" petition suggesting they have support of the United Nations. What they want is their parental authority to teach discrimination to their children. I guess they also advocate on behalf of white supremist parents.

      blaffergassted

      Mar 1, 2012 at 5:21pm

      Hilarious letter. I like the part about child obesity!

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      loklsol

      Mar 1, 2012 at 10:40pm

      This story would have been a run-of-the-mill variety here in Arizona where I am. We have jingoist sheriffs who profess to be border-protectin', gay-hatin', red-blooded Americans that turn out to be gay and dating - ahem, extorting (for sex) - undocumented immigrants. But that's Arizona.

      The above letter is really something though. To think that a group of people could read that and actually expect it to be taken seriously is...well...at least Arizona's crazies don't look as bad. Did they cite Wikipedia at one point? And please, we agnostics don't need our beliefs (?!?) defended.

      Look, I can't stand Lady Gaga either, but my reasoning is that she makes bad music and more than infrequently sends (innocently?) confused and contradictory messages. However, if my children, by listening to her, became more accepting of others and less inclined towards aggression, then I am fine with it. Can these parents not accept the fact that by attempting to ban Lady Gaga, they are actually making her more attractive to them? Seems obvious.

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      Charter Lau

      Mar 2, 2012 at 4:56pm

      Thank you Straight.com for reporting this story. However, there are some corrections that have to be made.

      CORRECTION:
      The video having issue is the original, official Lady Gaga Born This Way video:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV1FrqwZyKw&ob=av2e
      NOT the one with students dancing which was reported in this article.

      What BPV is protesting is the choice of song, the appropriateness of associating Lady Gaga's image (in the original video) with kids as young as eight, not the anti-bullying message.

      In fact students in Richmond also made an anti-bullying video using Usher's song (close to 80K hits in just 3 days!):
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ1A_IBi01E&feature=youtu.be

      We are not comparing singers. Indeed both of them are very successful. 
      It is fine for people to think Born This Way is great. But the fact is that the original, official video is still not age appropriate for kids as young as 8.

      Please also refer to Burnaby Parents' Voice's original news-release below:

      Burnaby February 28 - Burnaby Parents’ Voice is calling on Premier Clark and Minister of Education George Abbott to halt educators from posting on You Tube a video of students dancing to Lady Gaga, the controversial American shock-pop performer.
       

       
      In their letter to Clark and Abbott Burnaby Parents’ Voice question the legality and the educational purpose of posting students’ images on the internet, as well as the appropriateness of Lady Gaga as a learning resource in public schools.  
        

      Videos of the song include scenes of simulated group sex & masturbation, semi-nudity, a birth scene, and many crotch shots. The lyrics contains numerous slogans declaring Lady Gaga’s worldview which are offensive to most religions as well as atheism.  
       
      A new CBC documentary on the sexualization of children, Sext Up Kids, aired last week. It raises concerns that stars like Gaga encourage risky sexual behaviour as girls seek “acceptance” by conforming to image and performance pressures.
       

      Please contact BPV if anyone need help to clarify the original intention of the protest: burnabypv@gmail.com

      Thank you!

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