Black educators and advocates deserve to live in safety. 

We are calling on the provincial government to investigate the handling of recent racial violence and threats made against Black educators and education advocates in the province of Ontario.   

On April 1st, our own Claudette Rutherford, a secondary school teacher with the York Region District School Board, was notified by the York Regional Police that she was the victim of a hate crime. 

One week prior, a letter that included racial slurs and harmful anti-Black epithets had been sent to the YRDSB addressed to her. Not only was she not notified by the school board of the potential threat of harm, she was not protected or provided with support in dealing with the impact of the racial trauma and the threat to safety she endured. This is an egregious act of negligence. The YRDSB has demonstrated that they do not have a response protocol in place to address these incidents targeting staff. 

Additionally, in the month of March 2021 alone, Parents of Black Children has been made aware of three separate incidents of hate crimes targeting Black teachers in the York Region District School Board. 

This is a provincial issue. In February, D. Tyler Robinson, a teacher in the TDSB, was also targeted by a hate letter delivered to his school, as have several other educators who are involved in teaching an anti-Black racism course.
 

These horrific occurrences of anti- Black racism are not isolated to teachers only.  Educators in all levels of school leadership across the province as well as parent advocates (including PoBC’s own Charline Grant) are being subjected to vicious hate in their work environments. Those who are doing the work to dismantle systemic anti-Black racism in education are at an increased risk of hate incidents.

These incidents are not being treated with the urgency which they deserve. We are tired of the inaction and disregard for the safety for Black bodies on the part of school boards and cannot count on them to protect their staff and students from racial harm. 

In partnership with a coalition of Black community organizations and members of the broader community, we are calling on the province to:

1. Engage in a system-wide inquiry into these targeted racist incidents and provide increased support for educators who have faced such heinous and harmful threats.

2. Develop a provincially mandated protocol on responses to hate crimes and hate incidents faced by educators to address the inaction and haphazard response by district school boards.

3. Collect race-specific data to determine the number of race-based hate crimes, hate incidents, and racially motivated incidents of harm reported by Black educators across K-12 schools in Ontario. 

Additionally, we are also demanding that York Region District School Board:

1. Develop and publicly share policies to address the gaps and clear lack of process within the YRDSB to address hate crimes and mail perpetrated against teachers. 

2. Publicly acknowledge and address the hate mail that has been sent to advocates and Black teachers within the board community and apologize to educators who have been harmed by the YRDSB’s neglectful practices. 

Send a pre-written email to the provincial government, the YRDSB, and other key decision makers to show your support.