York Memorial students stage walkout to draw attention to unsafe school conditions

BY PAUL JUNOR

There has been local mainstream press attention on the walkout by York Memorial students on Friday, December 2^nd. The walkout was supported by Policing-Free Schools which has launched a national campaign for policing-free schools across Canada.

On its Facebook page, it notes that “Decades of systemic underfunding and under resourcing of educational systems (student’s learning conditions & educational workers working conditions) by Provincial Governments, along with City Council has a track record of prioritizing policing over addressing social determinants of health and equity. TDSB must also demand transformative actions by all levels of government to ensure healthy and thriving educational spaces.”

The walkout was supported by the advocacy group, Parents of Black Children (PoBC) which mentioned on its Facebook page that it was meant to draw attention to racial profiling, unsafe learning conditions, police violence and demand action from the TDSB.

The press release by PoBC listed that York Memorial students are exposed to:

• Police violence pointing guns in student faces and over surveilling students
• Racial violence at the hands of teachers and administrators, and overuse of suspensions
• Unsafe learning environments. No teachers, limited bathroom breaks, no resources, and no opportunities for students

The walkout started at 11:00 am after which students left their classrooms and gathered in front of the school located at 1700 Keele Street. The students walked to the TDSB Continuing Education Office located at 2 Tretheway Dr where there was a press conference at 12:00 pm.

Isabel Teotonio, the Education Reporter of the Toronto Star covered the walkout. Najmo Mohammed, a Grade 11 student described his feelings of being unsafe and wished for online learning instead of in-person learning. He states, “Do you understand how harmful that mindset is? Wishing that I’d be anywhere but in a space that is supposed to make me feel safe.”

A Grade 12 student, Khadijah Saho states, “We are students that need support, opportunities and a school board that actually cares. We are asking for a safe environment that protects us physically and mentally. We have the right to learn.”

Cornelius Ajibola from For Youth Initiative notes, “Some of these students don’t even know what their grades are. Some of these students are hoping to go to post-secondary institutions in the coming year and some of them are not even prepared for that because of what’s going on in the school.”

Colleen Russell-Rawlins, Director of the TDSB spoke to the students who were present at the walkout. She states, “We think our students have solutions that we may not have thought of and that’s why it’s important to continue listening.”

In response to a question regarding students’ experience of racism, she expressed shock and surprise. She notes, “And that’s why we need to speak to students to actually understand what their experience is, and then we can chart a course of action to deal with it.”

Liban Hassan, trustee of Ward 6 York South-Weston seems to indicate support for at least a temporary presence of police in the school. Director Russel-Rawlins states, “We need to bring all our parents and our students together to decide what the best way is forward. We’ve heard conflicting ideas about what it is we should be doing, but, when we need to have police because we are afraid of a risk, we do call the police.”

On Friday night, an email was sent to parents which outlined several steps that the TDSB would undertake to deal with the ongoing issues. It plans to ensure that a new administrative team is finalized, adding permanent teachers, conceiving of online learning possibilities, staggering exit times, ensuring that washrooms are not short of supplies as well as having a clear, consistent and  credible racism incident reporting mechanism.