Island school districts are cutting ties with a Christian summer camp after learning about an agreement staff are required to sign that refers to “homosexual behaviour” as a “sexual sin.”
The Cowichan Valley School District recently decided to stop sending students to Camp Qwanoes, southeast of Crofton, following similar moves by the Nanaimo-Ladysmith and Sooke districts. The decisions come after a Duncan teenager spoke out about the staff agreement to the media outlet The Discourse.
Sixteen-year-old Ryland Racicot had been looking forward to this summer, when he was finally old enough to take on a leadership role at the camp after attending for five summers.
But after getting all the references he needed and completing the paperwork, he read through the staff agreement and discovered a requirement he wasn’t comfortable agreeing to.
The Camp Qwanoes staff standards say staff members are expected to refrain from practices that are condemned in the Bible, and lists “sexual sins including premarital sex, adultery, homosexual behaviour and viewing of pornography.”
Ryland said that after he and his mother read what he was expected to agree to, he took a breather to process what the camp was asking of him and its other staff.
It didn’t take long for him to decide he would not sign the agreement, which meant turning down the opportunity.
“It’s the right thing to do. You know, it was how I was raised. It was the values and the morals that were instilled in me and you just know that that contract is not the right thing to do, to be part of,” he said.
Ryland’s mother, Sylvia Webb, said it was painful to realize that she had been sending her child to a camp where all the staff had signed this document.
“It was really awful for our family. It was very hard to kind of process you know, you’ve sent your child somewhere all this time and you’re feeling that it’s a safe and welcoming environment,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Cowichan Valley School District said the agreement goes against the district’s core values and is contrary to the Board of Education’s policy 25, which calls for a community free of discrimination and marginalization.
“I can confirm that no Cowichan Valley Schools have any outstanding contracts or agreements with Camp Qwanoes, and due to the staff agreement in question from the camp, we will conduct no further business with them. They have been made aware of our decision,” Mike Russell said in an email.
The Nanaimo Ladysmith school district called its decision to stop sending Grade 7 students to the camp for a year-end celebration “the right thing to do,” citing the need for inclusivity, safety and well-being and setting a positive example.
The Sooke School District said it will not approve future programming at the camp.
Camp Qwanoes executive director Scott Bayley said he was both saddened and surprised by the school district decisions. He said there is no religious content or programming when public schools attend.
In a statement sent to the Times Colonist, Bayley said the school districts talk about being inclusive, but it seems that is only with people who agree with their beliefs.
“At Qwanoes we are inclusive. We welcome children and youth of all backgrounds and beliefs, we seek to love and accept each one as an equal. Our unconditional love for everyone is actually based on our Christian faith,” he wrote.
Bayley noted Qwanoes is a Christian camp, owned and operated by a group of churches.
“We seek staff who share our similar beliefs, including that we look to the Bible as our basis for truth,” he wrote. “Requiring staff to indicate their support of and agreement with our Christian beliefs as a condition for employment is allowed for and protected in Canada. Religious freedom is an important part of Canadian society.”
Bayley said “there has never been a concern expressed to us relating to LGBTQ equality or religious beliefs from a school group.”
But Webb said she and Ryland are just the first whose concerns are actually being heard. She said she received an email from a former camper who said she came out while in a leadership role at the camp and was banned.
“It took her a really, really, really long time to recover and heal from that. And I think about all of those past children, now adults, at Qwanoes that maybe felt the same way,” Webb said.
