Black-faced teacher at Toronto school for Halloween assigned home – Toronto | The Canadian News

A Toronto District School Board teacher was assigned home after he showed up to class in black face makeup as part of a Halloween costume, the school principal said.

In a letter sent to parents, Julie Ardell, principal of Parkdale Collegiate Institute, said a student had alerted the assistant principal that a white staff member was in Blackface on Friday, the last school day before Halloween, when the staff and students usually dress up. for Halloween.

“Cartoons of people’s race or culture are inappropriate and offensive and hurtful,” Ardell wrote.

“Regardless of whether this was intentional or not, it was racist and dehumanizing.”

The principal said the teacher was asked to wash his face immediately.

A report was presented to the board for the TDSB procedure for reporting and responding to incidents of racism and hatred involving or impacting students in schools.

Ardell said that due to the investigation, the teacher was assigned to the house pending the outcome.

“On behalf of Parkdale CI, I acknowledge and regret the damage this incident has caused to students, staff and families and to our shared school climate,” Ardell said. “While we have begun work to address racism against blacks and all forms of discrimination, it is clear that we must do more.”

TO petition went online about the incident calling on the TDSB to do more to address racism against blacks in schools.

“At 9:30 am on October 29, 2021, a boy from his high school, Parkdale Collegiate Institute, took 11 pictures of his black-faced ninth-grade teacher,” wrote a concerned parent, Cathy Gatlin.

“He was understandably upset. Other kids were understandably upset, ”Gatlin continued. “When the teacher was asked how she dressed, the teacher said she didn’t have an idea for her Halloween costume, so she decided to paint her face black.”

Global News spoke to Gatlin, who said that while the principal took the correct action immediately after the incident was flagged, more needs to be done and that the incident reflects systematic problems in the schools.

“My concern is, how could this have happened? How could we let it get to this when a teacher was hired who may even think this is fine? “Gatlin said.” What went wrong? “

“Something went wrong with our system,” he said.

Gatlin said he would like the TDSB to have a more transparent process of how teachers are interviewed and hired, performance evaluations based in part on how the teacher is dealing with systemic issues like racism, and a better way for students to tell people about incidents of racism. .