Mother exposes how Thames Valley high school secretly surveyed kids on pronouns

A Thames Valley District School Board high school secretly surveyed students for their pronouns and “preferred names” without informing parents.

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A Thames Valley District School Board high school secretly surveyed students for their pronouns and “preferred names” without informing parents, according to documents obtained by True North from a concerned mother.

The surveys were administered as routine paperwork in civics and family studies courses, not through guidance or counselling services. The parent, who requested anonymity due to concerns about retaliation, said they were unaware their child was being asked questions about gender identity, report-card names and home disclosure preferences during normal class activities.

At the start of the course, students in grades 9 to 11 were asked to introduce themselves by providing preferred pronouns, including which pronouns should be used on report cards. Revealing pronouns was one of the few requirements to complete the survey.

A separate form asked for a student’s preferred first name and which name should appear on report cards. Students were also asked if there was “anything I should know about contacting home,” including whether they use different pronouns at home. That question appeared alongside routine household details, such as parental work schedules and living arrangements.

The surveys also collected personal information unrelated to course content, including how students spend their time outside school and whether they have any “mental or physical health issues.”

Students were again asked for their pronouns and which first name the teacher should use on their report cards during midterm feedback.

The practice aligns with the board’s internal guidance on transgender and gender diversity, which instructs staff to keep a student’s trans or gender-diverse status confidential. The guidance states that some students are not open about gender identity at home “because of safety or other reasons,” and that schools should never disclose that information to parents without a student’s explicit consent.

The guidance also “strongly suggests” that staff ask students how they wish to be addressed when communicating with parents, including at the beginning of the school year.

The parent said their child reported that a teacher had administered similar paper-based surveys but told students not to take them home. When the parent asked the school for a copy, they were told “it had either never been administered or the teacher couldn’t remember it.”

Concerns about secrecy surrounding gender issues in schools are not limited to Thames Valley. In Waterloo Region, Grade 8 students were instructed to “unlearn” what a teacher described as “LIES!” about LGBT youth, including the belief that parents have the right to know if a child changes their gender identity.

While confidentiality clauses are in policies across Ontario school boards, training materials in some districts explicitly instruct staff to exclude parents from information about gender identity and transitions.

In Simcoe County, elementary school teachers have been trained to keep parents uninformed about students’ participation in Gender and Sexuality Alliance clubs. Training materials state that parents are “never told who is attending, even if they ask.”

What distinguishes the Thames Valley case is how gender identity disclosure decisions were embedded into routine coursework, rather than handled through specialized student supports. The surveys were presented as standard course administration, making it unlikely parents would be aware the information was being collected.

The parent said they believe other families should be aware that schools may be collecting sensitive information without parental knowledge. They added that the school has since stopped administering the surveys.

True North contacted the Thames Valley District School Board for comment on its confidentiality policy, the use of Google Forms to collect sensitive student information, and whether the practice has been discontinued. The board did not respond by publication time.