Hunting Hills student and Minister's Youth Council member Cameron Litowski alongside Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange. (Supplied)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

meets with students

Student leader at Hunting Hills optimistic after meeting new Education Minister

May 16, 2019 | 12:13 PM

A Red Deer teenager who has the ear of government is hopeful the new Education Minister will listen to what students want.

Cameron Litowski, a grade 11 student at Hunting Hills High School, has spent the past year on the Education Minister’s Youth Council with David Eggen at the helm.

Now that former Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools board chair Adriana LaGrange has taken over the education portfolio, there’s been concern raised by some over her beliefs around GSAs, abortion, sex education, and what will happen with Bill 24, which the UCP is seeking to replace with the Education Act.

LaGrange is not being made available for interviews at this time, according to a spokesperson, because of the transition period between governments. However, she did meet with members of the Youth Council earlier this month to tell them the group will live on.

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LaGrange has now appointed a youth council sub-committee specifically to provide feedback on the proposed Education Act.

“She essentially told us that she has about 600,000 bosses, and all of those bosses are students,” says Litowski, who is on the new committee.

“A lot of people with the GSA walkout are really scared, and justifiably so. When your safety at school could be jeopardized, you should do as much as you can to prevent that. The minister is really saying ‘I hear you and we are going to represent your voices in the legislature.'”

On the argument that parents should not be shut out from what their kids are doing at school, LaGrange told the council she believes in greater parent involvement.

“I’m not her spokesperson, but I don’t think she believes in outing gay and trans kids. The conservative stance is ‘How can we make a compromise,’ and in most situations compromise is effective, but the problem with this scenario is that people feel the UCP is being slightly less than transparent about changing Bill 24,” he says.

Litowski has seen a lot of good come from Bill 24, along with very few negatives, leaving him unsure of what positive outcomes will come from switching to the Education Act.

“One of the biggest things we learned from the Minister’s Youth Council is reaching across different ideologies, shaking peoples’ hands and learning how to sit down at a table with people whom, politically, you may be adversaries,” he says.

A member of the Hunting Hills QSA, Litowski isn’t telling his fellow students to quiet down or not to have another walkout.

“Continue to scream at the top of your lungs about what you feel and what your lived experience is that is being shut down by society., but there are different ways students can continue to be politically active,” he says.

“I share your fear. I grew up in rural Lacombe and having a QSA really was a turning point in my life. The thought that there could be anything to change that scares me, so stay educated, make sure you’re representatives are held accountable and make sure that the province is working for you, not the other way around.”

Concluding, Litowski shared that the minister consoled a fellow Youth Council member who cried while sharing their GSA experience.

“I really respect the minister’s willingness to come and meet with the council. She met with us before she met most of her own staff and that was really a fantastic first step of showing that student voices will be at the forefront of what she does,” he says.

“I don’t have any reason to believe that she does not intend to follow through on those promises.”