“Who can we trust?” Parents of black children launch trustee tracker

BY PAUL JUNOR

The advocacy group, Parents of Black Children (PoBC) has worked tirelessly to support and advocate on behalf of the success of black students.

Since it was formed in 2019, it has initiated several initiatives to tackle anti-black racism in Ontario schools. Many of these innovative projects can be seen at its website parentsofblackchildren.org. These include: United Parents (UP) Project, which is designed to support parents of black children as they navigate the education system. It consists of three core streams; capacity building workshops, educator systems navigator, and Black Parent Mentoring Program.

They launched the first ever School Racism Reporting Tool in early 2021 in order to collect information and advocate for boards to formally collect data on incidents of anti-black racism. On Wednesday, May 20^th PoBC announced the launch of its PoBC Trustee Tracker. Its website presents information about the important role of Trustees.

According to Ontario Municipal and School Board Elections www.elections.ontarioschoolstrustees;

• The school trustee is a member of a team
• Trustees are responsible for establishing policy direction
• Trustees, as members of the board, are accountable to the province
• Trustees are accountable to their electorate
• School board trustees are community leaders
• Trustees champion equity in education
• Trustees hold themselves accountable for their conduct

There is no doubt that there have been challenges in fulfilling item # 6. In this role, “Trustees work to ensure equity across their school board so that every student has the opportunity to succeed regardless of background, identity or personal circumstances. The role of school board trustee involves bringing the voice of everyone, including marginalized communities (e.g., Indigenous students, newcomers/immigrants, people coming from low socio-economic backgrounds etc.) to the board table.”

In presenting its Ontario Trustee Tracker, PoBC states, “Over the last few years, we have seen trustees in school boards across Ontario demonstrate anti-black racism.” It references specific incidents, which have occurred. The first one involves former YRDSB’s trustee, Nancy Elgie who used the N-word to describe Charline Grant. This led to her subsequent resignation and a formal letter of apology.

The second incident involved four HWDSB trustees who were alleged to have made racist comments against a former student trustee. The third incident involved OCDSB trustee Donna Blackburn who was formally disciplined by her board for using a racially insensitive remarks to a black teenager whom she confronted because he was not abiding by protocols regarding physical distancing.

The fourth incident involved a former PDSB trustee who called McCrimmon Middle School in Brampton “McCriminal.” PoBC notes, “Unfortunately, school board trustees are elected at the municipal level, which sees very low voter turnout and few citizens being informed about the candidates.