Charline Grant – Parents advocating for better school systems

BY: ALYSSA MAHADEO

With the kids headed back to school for another year of fun, excitement and learning, all parents want is for their children to be safe, respected and most importantly treated fairly.

Charline Grant is a mother who knows all too well about how children and parents can feel alienated, discriminated against and marginalized in a place where they should feel at home.

Charline immigrated to Canada from Jamaica at the age of 15, attending high school and college here in the city with intentions to pursue a career in law.

She was able to secure and fill various positions in the legal field, completing her real estate license in 2008 and tackling both of those professions for a while before becoming a mother to three beautiful children.

“I started noticing that my oldest son was having issues at school,” Charline says. “I was never quiet about it discussing it in detail with my husband and writing a lot of letters to those in charge, not just sitting back and letting things happen.”

She noticed just after he began high school that her son was being faced with unfair and unwarranted circumstances of discrimination not by his peers, but by teachers and staff at the school.

“When we got to know what was going on, we made appointments to meet with the teachers and the administrative staff at the school,” Charline shares. “When I look back at it and remember the responses, the arrogance of the board I thought to myself this can’t be an isolated incident.”

Charline and her family live in the York Region, and in 2016 census release, it is reported that 47% of York Region residents are born outside of Canada – third highest in Ontario behind Peel and Toronto.

Deciding to do some research on the matter, Charline took to Google to search up any other instances of racism in York Region and was unsurprised to find another story similar to our experience which warranted another media outlet to get in contact with us and run our story.

“It was through that story that I was able to connect with other parents,” Charline says, “We decided to challenge the board and Ontario Human Rights which we won and that experience made me realize that the board needed a strong voice, someone, who’s not afraid to stand up for what’s right.”

The coverage their story received from the article allowed more parents to come forward and have their voices heard. They formed a coalition with parents from other marginalized communities and even those who weren’t marginalized who had decided enough is enough and didn’t want these types of situations to continue in their community.

“From that experience dealing with the board, I knew I still have two other children in school as well and I really need to be a part of the change to manage these types of behavior moving forward,” Charline says.

This spring, in order to keep her parents not only to the parents who looked up to her, but also her children and others that might have been affected by such unfair circumstances, Charline announced that she would be running for York Region School Board Trustee Wards 1 & 2, covering the areas of Klineberg, Maple and Woodbridge.

She had been considering running for some time now, and through the encouragement of other parents and the well-being of her children, Charline submitted her name for this worthy cause.

“Other than equality and inclusion there are so many other situations we can be a part of to minimize the corruption,” Charline says. “The best way to have change is to change the people at the table.”

“We can’t just have teachers and administrative staff stand on this soapbox,” Charline explains. “They should be doing mandatory and continuous equality training to be able to make all children feel safe and included in the school board.”

She says that staff can’t be expected to teach based on assumption. A big part of advocating for this change is also to implement transparency so people will have a better handle on what to do if there is an issue, who to contact, and have access to receiving the help they need to correct a situation.

“This was something that the other parents struggled with,” Charline says, “It was a big obstacle for them with the lack of information and knowing where to find information, so they would know what they need to do.

Charline says that she hopes to garner a more progressive education system for the students as well. “Things that my generation had to experience to learn, I would like my children to be taught that” Charline explains, “Things like financial literacy, understanding what a mortgage is, how to protect your identity, stuff that should be common knowledge and basic information that our children need to be informed later in life.”

The municipal election will take place on October 22nd, 2018, and a number of other parents have also decided to take Charline’s lead coming forward and throwing their own names in the race for School Board Trustee.

Charline had sparked a movement across Vaughn, not only in her community but other marginalized groups who have felt victimized by the system and know that now is the time for an immense change.

“A river cuts through a rock not because of its power but because of its persistence.” -Jim Watkins.