Toronto School Removes Student-Created Mother's Day Message After Locals Complain

You can't make this stuff up! 'Mother’s Day has come under fire ... as activists claim the gender-specific holiday is controversial and potentially offensive.'

From LifeSiteNews

By Ashley Sadler

Mother’s Day has come under fire in recent weeks as activists claim the gender-specific holiday is controversial and potentially offensive.

A Toronto school took down a Mother’s Day sign after a woman said she was offended by the “terribly misguided” message that had been created by sixth graders in honor of their mothers.

According to a report by CP24, a local woman on Tuesday posted an image to Facebook of the sign outside the Kew Beach Junior Public School on the east side of Toronto.

The sign read: “Life does not come with a manual. It comes with a mom.”

“I don’t know if this is a terribly misguided attempt at wishing folks a happy Mother’s Day or just generally the worst sign possible,” the woman, whose four children don’t attend the school, wrote on Facebook. “I don’t feel like this represents the neighbourhood it’s in, the cohort of families at this school, or anything really.”

CP24 reported that numerous people responded to the Facebook post, echoing the original poster’s criticism of the Mother’s Day message.

“One person said that the greeting was in ‘bad taste’ while others called it ‘inappropriate,’ and ‘mega exclusionary,’” the outlet reported.

RELATED: Honor your mother with the 2023 LifeSite Spiritual Bouquet

Not all commenters agreed the message was “inappropriate” or “exclusionary,” however.

“This sign does not say anything else more than what it states, it does not say you cannot be a woman, you cannot go to work, you cannot share taking care of kids with your partner,” one commenter said.

Regardless, online criticism turned to real-world activism as some people opted to call and email the school to express their discontent. The message was ultimately taken down.

In a statement to the CP24, Toronto District School Board spokesperson Shari Schwartz-Maltz said that “Grade 6 students at Kew Beach came up with the first quote collectively as they prepare for Mother’s Day this weekend, to share how much they care for and depend on their moms.”

After receiving the “feedback” from critics, Schwartz-Maltz said “the school recognized that this quote does not reflect the inclusivity of our community and took immediate steps to address the issue.”

The Mother’s Day message has been replaced with “an encouraging acronym for May” that avoids any mention of mothers. The new sign (which included a spelling error at the time the image was taken) reads: “M: Make this month count A: Accomplish [sic] your goals Y: You can do this.”

“Mother’s Day is too exclusionary. Please be sensitive for community cohesion,” reacted Gad Saad, a Canadian professor and author of The Parasitic Mind.

Meanwhile, the Toronto school’s decision to back down from its celebration of mothers isn’t the only recent instance in which the celebration of motherhood has been deemed controversial.

This week, a Manitoba high school announced it would officially cancel both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this year because the holidays allegedly aren’t “inclusive,” LifeSiteNews previously reported.

RELATED: Manitoba high school cancels Mother’s Day, Father’s Day celebrations to be ‘more inclusive’

“As we continue to learn and recognize the importance of celebrating all people in our community, we have moved away from isolated observances of specific traditions like Mother’s and Father’s Day,” the vice principal of Kildonan East Collegiate, a public high school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, wrote in a memo.

And it’s not just Canadian schools that are ditching mothers in the interest of “inclusivity.” Major corporations, including Levi’s, DoorDash, and Etsy, have recently topped headlines for offering subscribers the option not to receive Mother’s Day-related advertisements.

The moves to erase references to motherhood also come as leftists have increasingly sought to replace gender-specific language with new verbiage acceptable to the transgender lobby. Governmental agencies, universities, and mainstream publications now frequently refer to “pregnant people” or even “birthing people” instead of mothers.

Pushing back against this trend, LifeSiteNews is gathering a worldwide spiritual bouquet to lift up moms in prayer this Mother’s Day.