Bountiful schools get public funds, but government scrutiny is suspect
 
By Daphne Bramham
Vancouver Sun
 
B.C. Education Minister Tom Christensen says it's not okay to teach polygamy to school children.

Polygamy, he says, is a criminal code offence and it would be wrong to teach that in schools.

What he doesn't mention is that every B.C. government since 1992 has refused to prosecute polygamy, fearing that the federal law might not withstand a constitutional challenge -- a decision that has unofficially legalized the practice here.

But then Christensen and the B.C. government have just decided to put their blessing on a second fundamentalist Mormon school in the polygamous community of Bountiful in southeastern B.C.

This year the government will hand over $867,000 to two fundamentalist Mormon schools -- $363,000 to the new Mormon Hills School and $504,000 to Bountiful Elementary-Secondary School.

"There's no evidence that that [polygamy] is being taught in the schools and that is part of the challenge -- distinguishing what is happening in the schools and what is going on in the community," Christensen said Tuesday after releasing reports from inspections done in early November.

But there may be no evidence because inspectors weren't asked to look for that in the religious teaching.

Part of the problem is that both Christensen and Jim Beeke, B.C.'s inspector of independent schools, admit they don't know the difference between fundamentalist Mormons and mainstream Mormons.

Inspectors, who spent just three days to evaluate both Bountiful Elementary-Secondary and Mormon Hills, apparently don't either.

"All students are required to take religious instruction in the Mormon faith and attend daily chapel/assembly," they wrote in their report on Mormon Hills.

That will come as a bit of a shock to the hierarchy and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the mainstream church. They disavowed polygamy in 1890 and ex-communicate any of their followers who practise it. They also rescinded a ban on black men joining the priesthood in 1978.

Fundamentalists -- the people who live in Bountiful -- have never accepted that decision of the mainstream church on either polygamy or black people.

Beeke didn't ask the inspectors to look for religious teachings about polygamy, even though FLDS teaches that polygamy is essential for anyone who wants to enter heaven.

Bountiful Elementary-Secondary's principal is Merrill Palmer, a polygamist with at least two wives.

Mormon Hills' principal is Richard Blackmore, who has at least three wives. His half-brother Winston Blackmore, the school's superintendent, has 26 wives and more than 100 children.

Beeke says inspectors were specifically instructed to look for racial superiority references in the religion textbooks, workbooks and audio-visual aids as well as in interviews with teachers and students.

But perhaps they didn't read far enough into the Book of Onias, one of the Mormon holy books in which God reveals to Onias that blacks were subhuman "beasts of the field, which were the most intelligent of all animals that were created, for they did walk upright as man doeth and had the power of speech."

Mormon Hills' objective, according to the inspectors' report, is to "prepare students to become interactive and productive citizens in their community."

Its philosophical statement says materials provided by the education ministry "will be augmented specifically to include the manners, morals and mores of the pioneer heritage of fundamentalist Mormonism."

Its peronal planning course outline makes it clear -- the inspectors say -- that "the school strives to address the learning objectives within its philosophic perspective."

That of course means polygamy and the perspective that girls' highest and best use is as prolific mothers and obedient wives.

Beeke agreed that it might be better if students were prepared to be citizens of the wider community -- as opposed to the closed world of Bountiful. But he says the philosophy doesn't contravene the B.C. Independent School Act, its regulations or any rules.

Plus, Beeke has been assured by a local RCMP officer -- whose name he couldn't remember -- that Bountiful residents are involved in many community activities.

It's not a view shared by most Creston residents.

But there are other issues in the inspection reports on the two schools that are of concern.

All students from Grades 1 to 7 in the new Mormon Hills School are using 30-year-old reading textbooks. There is no library and the book collections are "limited and to a large extent dated."

There are no computers available for student use, although the school officials promised that six would be available within a few weeks.

At Bountiful Elementary-Secondary, where two of the five directors are American residents, inspectors found a number of students' files were missing essential information -- birth certificates.

Beeke says he doesn't know how many were missing.

But it raises questions about whether B.C. taxpayers are paying to educate children whose parents are in Canada illegally, or children who don't even live in B.C., but come across the border daily.

Beeke plans to follow up.

The bigger question remains unanswered: Should taxpayers be funding these schools when the fundamental value being taught is not only illegal, it discriminates against women and victimizes children?
 
Vancouver Sun
Originally published Wednesday, December 15, 2004
 
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