Peel District School Board Responds to Parents' Demands Regarding Anti-Black Racism Project

By Neil Armstrong

Photo contributed     Nicole Brooks, a parent, with her son, Asah Brooks, at the Peel District School Board meeting on May 22 in Mississauga, Ontario.

The Peel District School Board (PDSB) says it is committed to working alongside its parent advisory group to gain an understanding of how to best serve Black male students in Peel, and gain public trust and confidence.

This is in response to the concerns of parents on the ‘We Rise Together’ parent advisory urging the board at a meeting on May 22 to provide resources and staffing for the objectives of its plan to address anti-Black racism towards Black Boys in schools.

They say the ‘We Rise Together’ action plan needs to be under the primary direction of a project manager/team “so that the buck stops with someone for getting results.”

They note that dedicated resources and proper funding must be allocated to achieve key project objectives and to take the action plan from paper to practice.

“Without a strong commitment from the Peel board, the ‘We Rise Together’ action plan will not achieve any real results,” they said.

Responding to their demands, PDSB director of education Peter Joshua, said they acknowledge and share the advisory group’s input that dedicated resources and funding must be allocated to achieve the key project objectives and move this work into practice.

“As always, we appreciate the input from concerned community members and representatives of the We Rise Together parent advisory group. We are taking this input into consideration as we work through our budget process for the 2018-19 school year,” he says.

He said the board will share its plan to fund year two of the We Rise Together Action Plan with the advisory group in the coming weeks.

At the meeting parents shared stories of ongoing mistreatment of Black boys in Peel schools and urged the board to review the implementation of the 'We Rise Together' plan.

Photo contributed         Nicole Brooks in an interview at the Peel District School Board meeting on May 22, 2018.

Joshua said one of the board’s goals is to achieve inclusion for all through continuous progress on equity. 

As part of this goal, the ‘We Rise Together’ Action Plan was released in October 2016. After hosting a number of events to gather feedback on the plan from students, families and community members, the board shared its year one action plan in June 2017 for the 2017-18 school year. 

“Progress on the four priority areas of our ‘We Rise Together’ Action Plan has been made in year one (the 2017-18 school year), but our important work to identify, understand, minimize and eliminate the marginalization of Black male students in our schools continues,” he said.

These priority areas include: community engagement, delivering anti-Black racism and bias awareness professional development, integrating the experiences of Black Canadians into the curriculum, and inspiring Black student leadership and engagement.

Joshua said an update will be provided on all of these priority areas in the responses to the delegations that were made at the May 22 meeting of the board. This information will be provided in delegation response letters that will be shared at the board meeting on June 5, 2018.

“It has been almost three years since the action plan was launched and Peel board has not installed a full-time, dedicated team to manage the project. Instead, what we have are a handful of principals and teachers who are volunteering their time, while juggling their full-time work duties, to tackle the initiative,” says Alton Brooks, the Brampton parent representative on the parent advisory.

Photo contributed    Alton Brooks, Brampton Parent Representative, We Rise Parent Advisory.

Joshua notes that although it is accurate that there are four principals who are currently assisting with elements of the action plan, a number of staff members from the PDSB’s equity team have supported this important work during the 2017-18 school year.

“This includes our coordinating principal of equity, instructional coordinator of equity and inclusive education, equity resource teacher and instructional coordinator of anti-Black racism education. The initiative is being supervised and coordinated through the board’s curriculum and instruction superintendent, associate director of instructional and equity support services, and director of education.” 

Parents say the project has had no impact on the treatment of Black boys, who still continue to be targeted for anti-Black racism in schools.

The director of education said the board’s ‘We Rise Together’ Action Plan was created to identify, understand, minimize and eliminate the marginalization experienced by Black male students in Peel board schools.

“We continue to work towards this end, but know that we are still on this journey.”

Joshua said it is the policy of the Peel District School Board to address concerns ​in a fair, respectful and effective manner.

“When reports of inappropriate behaviour are raised, school administrators take them seriously and investigate them immediately. They will look into the incident, interview staff and students who are involved, and speak to witnesses, if there are any. 

"Upon completion of their investigation, administrators may use a continuum of developmentally appropriate progressive discipline strategies, including suspension and expulsion where necessary, as corrective, supportive consequences for inappropriate behaviour. Progressive discipline is outlined in the board’s Safe Schools Policy,” he said when asked about how anti-Black racism is being addressed in the PDSB where allegations of the mistreatment of Black Boys are concerned and the measures that are in place. 

Regarding a case cited by a parent who said her nine-year-old son's teacher removed food that was thrown in the garbage and placed it in his school bag with a note instructing him to eat the item, Joshua said the report is currently being investigated. 

An administrator will connect with the family of the student who brought the concern forward when the investigation is completed, he said.

[This story has been published in the North American Weekly Gleaner, May 31-June 6, 2018.]