Revealing report released illustrating the reality of anti-Black racism within Ontario’s education system

BY PAUL JUNOR

Since the launch of the Parents of Black Children (PoBC) this advocacy group has been at the forefront of the struggles to ensure that Black students achieve their full potential through transformative changes in education policies, programs, and practices.

According to its website: parentsofblackchildren.org, “Our focus is international, to eliminate anti-Black racism and decolonize the education system. We support parents as they advocate for their children, and navigate the education system. We act as a wrap around support by offering workshops, and educational tools to best protect our Black children.”

Over the past year, PoBC has developed the School Racism Reporting Tool, the Student and Family Advocate Program Navigating the Education System Tool, the Education System Navigation Support and they launched the online Afrocentric Virtual Campus. On Monday, March 14^th, 2022, they released a report illustrating the reality of anti-Black racism within Ontario’s education system. The 57-page report was based on data and detailed case students obtained between September 2020 to February 2022.

The report describes the foundation of the PoBC, goals, and how it is grounded in principles of anti-Black racism analysis. The report provides a basis for understanding system abuse. It is defined as, “The on-going emotional harm that occurs with Black children within the education system and interconnected systems such as child welfare,” The report goes further to state, “We are seeing a lack of accountability within schools and school boards, a lack of  urgency to address the issues and an unwillingness by systems such as child  welfare to  prioritize the protection of Black students by holding those harming Black children accountable.”

Since March 2021, PoBC obtained 150 responses on its anonymous School Reporting Tool which is accessible on its website. This provides first-hand qualitative information about the experiences of Black educators and administrators in the system and the racist experiences that they encountered. The report notes, “There are no systems of accountability and reporting for educators, nor are their mechanisms in place to support those who are victimized.” The report also provides details about the experiences of Black families within the Ontario education system. It states, “Children are forced to deal with painful and egregious harm at school which does not have the appropriate mechanisms in place to protect them. These students are racially targeted by peers and teachers at school.”

Some of the key findings of the report include the following:

Racial abuse
Black students isolated and ostracized by teachers or non-Black students, bullying or cyber bullying Black students.

Lack of accountability
Lack of accountability through mandated reporting to Ontario College of Teachers and other reporting bodies.

Shifting goalposts
Black students are held to a higher standard of classroom conduct compared to their non-Black peers.

Catholic school cases have a pattern of being more egregious
We are witnessing reports of ‘containment’ and isolation tactics, being used as a form of discipline.

The findings from the report will be delivered to the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) as well as 62 victim impact statements. There is the expectation that the OHRC will launch a full inquiry into anti-Black racism as a result of this damning report. As a result of this report, the POBC is, “Calling for a full investigation into the suspensions, expulsions and discipline tactics in Catholic schools and the province of Ontario, It is imperative that we dismantle the systemic racism within our institutions and public services workers, especially where children are involved. Enough is enough.”

The full report can be seen: children.org/pobc-system-abuse-report.