Courtesy of Barrie360.com and Canadian PressPublished: Nov 29th, 2023

By Maan Alhmidi in Toronto

Canada’s largest school board has moved away from communicating every hate- or racism-related incident to school communities after finding that letters about the cases could lead to further harm. 

The changes in the Toronto District School Board procedures drew attention recently after two parents raised concerns about how an elementary school handled reports of hateful graffiti on site. 

The parents, who are school council co-chairs at McMurrich Junior Public School, said they were “disheartened” when they heard from their children last week about swastikas drawn in a girls bathroom at the school. 

Rachel Cooper and Livy Jacobs said the school principal and superintendent didn’t send an email to parents and other school community members about the incident, which they argue should have happened. 

“As parents we need to have this information so we can appropriately guide our young children,” Jacobs said in an interview. 

“These are elementary schoolchildren, and when they have to learn about something so vile … they should be properly provided guidance by their parents and teachers.”

Cooper said her daughter told her the principal made an announcement at school about graffiti found in the bathroom, but there was no letter sent to parents.

Cooper and Jacobs said other parents reached out to them and voiced concerns about the lack of communication from the school on the issue.

They said the school had handled a similar incident in 2019 differently when the principal sent an email to the school community informing them about the incident. 

“The principal at that time had to deal with racial, antisemitic slurs and swastikas spray-painted on the exterior wall of our school and had to report it and call the police to deal with it,” Jacobs said. 

“(The principal) wrote a very nice letter, like an informative letter to the parents describing the incident that has occurred, the steps that were taken, and reinforcing the inclusivity and programming that we have at the school, in the school community.”

TDSB spokesman Ryan Bird said the board decided more than a year ago to reduce the frequency of distributing letters to school communities because the communications often led to the “identification, surveillance, and stigmatization of the specific students who may have been involved.”

“These actions result in further harm to students and the overall school climate,” he wrote in an email.  

“The TDSB has a responsibility to do all that we can to protect the privacy of the students involved while ensuring, parents, guardians and caregivers of the students involved are informed, appropriate consequences are enacted, and support is provided to the students or staff impacted by the incident.”

He said the board also found that communication about such incidents had the unintentional effect of prompting additional “copycat” incidents.

Bird said the board takes all allegations of hate and racism “very seriously.”

“After an act of racism or hate is reported in one of our schools, staff immediately support any impacted students, provide a learning opportunity where appropriate and begin an investigation,” he said. 

“While each incident is looked at on a case-by-case basis, these incidents can lead to outcomes including suspensions according to TDSB procedures and the Education Act.”  

Ontario Catholic Teachers File For Conciliation In Contract Talks

Courtesy of Barrie360.com and Canadian PressPublished: Dec 1st, 2023

Toronto

Ontario’s English Catholic teachers are asking for a conciliator to help their contract negotiations with the province.

The talks have been ongoing for almost 18 months, and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association says progress has been “extremely slow.”

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario have reached deals with the government that settle certain issues and leave others to an arbitrator to decide.

In that process, an arbitrator takes submissions and makes a decisions that the parties agree to abide by, but a conciliator is a neutral third party that helps the two sides reach a deal.

OECTA president René Jansen in de Wal says Catholic teachers have been “beyond patient, especially as other education affiliates reach tentative agreements,” so they hope that with the help of a conciliator, progress can be made faster.

OECTA members earlier voted 97 per cent in favour of giving their union a strike mandate, and the president says filing for conciliation does not mean there will be any job action.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce has urged OECTA and the union representing teachers in the French public system to accept binding arbitration.