Local media were surprised Friday morning when they arrived to cover a student protest at Chippewa school against the revised sex-ed guidelines.
See: Student walkout Friday will protest Ford's sex-ed policy
The Near North District School Board barred reporters from covering the event in the gym.
Media are typically unimpeded when covering events like high school sports or other events.
But this one, for some reason, was different.
"We have advised that a number of media outlets are requesting access to school property in the event that any walk-outs occur inside due to weather conditions," said Mairghread Knought, the Board's Communication Officer.
"Regarding media coverage of this 'event' no media is to be permitted in the building during the walk-in. Our educators are responsible for the health, safety, well-being and confidentiality of our students while in our buildings. If the media wants to speak to students, they will have to wait until the end of the day when students are off NNDSB property to interview them for comments. This is standard board protocol with respect to public access to buildings during instructional hours."
The Catholic Board also has many events at their schools and the media has never been banned. Instead, they are asked to sign in at the school entrance.
Asked why this wasn't reasonable for the public board, Knought said, "I can't speak to the Catholic Board's protocol."
She was asked if the media would be banned from other events, like basketball games.
"No, not if they are invited in. In this particular circumstance, we had issues with the media showing up at school and our principals being unaware, and reaching out to us."
She denied reporters were refused access because it was a protest against Premier Doug Ford.
"For this instance, that is our position. We can't just allow the media to walk into our schools.
"The reason this incident is different is if it's a student walk-out, our focus in a situation like that is because of the nature of the event as we are focused on the health and safety of the students so they can protest their rights in a peaceful manner and not disrupt the students who choose not to participate in the event."
How are reporters a threat to that?
"I'm not going to answer that question," said Knought. "That's not fair."
See related story: Chippewa students join province-wide protest against sex-ed curriculum changes
