Toronto Catholic School Board takes positive steps to fight anti-black racism in schools

BY PAUL JUNOR

The on-going fight against systemic racism, specifically anti-black racism has particularly focused on the role of educational institutions. Within the Greater Toronto area, both public and catholic school boards have seen the importance of having anti-racism plans in place.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) is one of the most recent boards that have been pressured to implement an anti-racism plan. There have been reports of racist incidents at schools including: St. Mother Teresa Catholic Academy, Francis Leberman Catholic S.S, Notre Dame Catholic S.S. and Monsignor Percy Johnson Catholic S.S. that have been published in the mainstream media. These cast a negative light on the board as it seems slow to admit and develop strategies to combat anti-black racism.

In the wave of George Floyd’s death and increased racist reports in Ontario, there was a statement released by the Chair and former Director on June 2^nd, 2020, which states, “We have to face the truth that anti-black racism exists in the TCDSB.” Subsequently, former Student Trustee Taylor Dallin presented fourteen recommendations at a Special Board meeting on June 18^th, 2021 regarding anti- black and anti-indigenous racism in TCDSB’s schools. These came about as a result of consultation with students and the Equity and Human Rights Advisor. Some of these recommendations are:

• Disaggregated race-based student data collection be initiated so that the TCDSB knows the issues BIPOC students face and has numbers of representation
• Mandatory bi-annual and anti-racism training for all teachers, administrators and staff be put-in place which helps break down the racial barrier between themselves and students facilitates an understanding of BIPOC topics
• The TCDSB makes an official commitment to tracking anti-black racism given that the word “black” was not mentioned a single time in the TCDSB Equity Action Plan
• Staff rights vs. human rights specific policy modelled around the Ontario Human Rights Code, which recognized the enumerated grounds of the charter, lays out wrongful behaviours and details an investigation process
• All TCDSB reports and policies go through a race equity lens prior to being published
• Proper infrastructure be put in place to address equity needs within the TCDSB in the form of a more extensive and permanent equity team
• The TCDSB is committed to working with the African-Canadian Advisory Committee, the Indigenous Education Advisory Community and BIPOC students in implementing these recommendations

Dr. Brendon Browne was appointed as Director of Education of the TCDSB starting September 1^st, 2020. This was good news given his expertise in implementing positive systemic changes. He wrote a letter on November 6^th, 2020 titled, “TCDSB’ s commitment in addressing anti-black racism,” in which he outlined in detail his vision. He acknowledged the reality of anti-black racism and states, “As the Director of Education for TCDSB, I recognize my role and leadership as, being paramount to addressing systemic racism, ensuring equity and leading from an anti-racist, anti-oppression perspective.”

He states that one of his first decisions is to obtain data. He writes, “We are taking immediate steps to launch our identity- based data collection which will better equip us to identify and monitor disparities within our school system. This data will inform decisions that change outcomes for black students.”

There was a subsequent announcement that the Equity Department is working to create a Dismantling Anti-Black Racism Strategy (DABR) after getting input from black students. There was a call out for Virtual Focus Groups from two streams. The first one involves approximately sixty-four students from different regions, which are done virtually, and the second one was from a questionnaire/survey.

In addition, TCDSB created African Canadian Heritage Resources for February 2021. Workshops on

“Unpacking Anti-black Racism” that were conducted by Natasha Henry.  There was also the first Student Voice Competition for Grades 7-12 students geared to combating racism in TCDSB schools.