Nanaimo mother’s school ban lifted after legal challenge

A Nanaimo mother who was banned from her child’s school for a Facebook post criticizing a teacher’s progress pride flag shirt has had the order revoked after a legal appeal.

Source: Bryony Dixon

A Nanaimo mother who was banned from her child’s school for a Facebook post criticizing a teacher’s progress pride flag shirt has had the order revoked after a legal appeal backed by the Free Speech Union of Canada.

Bryony Dixon was banned from school property this fall after refusing to delete a Facebook post that criticized what she called the “extremist, misogynist, and homophobic flag of their shared secular religion.” The post included a blurry photo of a teacher wearing a progress pride flag t-shirt on the first day of school.

The district claimed her post linked “violence in the United States with an identifiable photo of a member of our staff,” and said it created a “risk of inciting violence.” The exclusion order barred her from entering the school until June 2026 and warned that the RCMP could be called if she returned without permission.

Dixon said the photo was not identifiable and that her comments were political, not personal. “It could have been any teacher,” she told True North. “Nothing in the picture identified anyone.”

The letter, signed by the superintendent, invoked a measure intended to remove people from school property who pose a safety threat or disrupt operations.This law is rarely invoked and generally applies to trespassing or threatening behavior on-site, not to parents’ social media activity.

After receiving the exclusion order, Dixon withdrew her child from school and began homeschooling. She then contacted the Free Speech Union of Canada, which provided her with legal counsel through its executive director, lawyer Lisa Bildy of Libertas Law.

In a letter, Bildy argued that the school district had overstepped its authority. She said the ban had been “illegally and improperly” applied, and that the order violated Dixon’s Charter right to freedom of expression. The letter also accused the district of monitoring Dixon’s online activity and discriminating against her for holding gender-critical political views.

Documents released through Freedom of Information requests appear to support that claim. A 2024 internal email from a staff member to district administrators shows that Dixon’s social media posts were being shared internally. The author asked colleagues to review her comments to determine “the legal liability of Bryony.”

Superintendent Gray responded to Bildy confirming that the exclusion order had been revoked. Gray added that she would “continue to encourage [Dixon] to consider the impacts of social media posts seemingly targeted at specific district employees.”

No apology was issued.

“School boards are now attempting to censor and punish parents who use social media to criticize the politicization of public education. This is the third letter the FSUC has sent on behalf of parents in our short existence,” said Bildy in an email to True North.

Bildy said she’s pleased the exclusion order was dropped, but that “forcing a parent to delete their posts is inappropriate.”

The organization has recently intervened in similar cases at the Toronto District School Board and Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, where parents were told to remove online posts critical of school policies.

“If public school boards don’t want to be criticized for politicizing the classroom, they are free to return to teaching math and reading and to drop the activism,” she said.

In Nanaimo, the ban’s reversal marks an important test of how far school boards can go in disciplining parents for comments made outside school property.

For Dixon, it was a reminder of the power imbalance between parents and administrators. “They thought they could silence me,” she said. “But parents have a right to speak about what happens in their children’s schools.”