Family sues school board for discriminating against 4-year-old boy

Grace, whose last name is withheld to protect the identity of the child, filed a civil suit on June 16 against the Waterloo Catholic District School Board [WCDSB, Conseil scolaire catholique du district de Waterloo, traduction libre], nearly four months after it was publicly revealed that police were called to John Sweeney Elementary School to defuse an incident involving his son. He was in kindergarten at the time. His name is also on the list of plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks $1 million in damages, costs of legal proceedings, and any other relief that the courts may suggest. A copy of the lawsuit was obtained by The Canadian News.

They victimized my son, they criminalized him, […] they didn’t accept it in their white spaceGrace told The Canadian News.

They never allowed my child to be a child. They discriminated against him because of his race and color.

The lawsuit, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kitchener, claims the school board also failed to ensure staff understood anti-Black racism and could respond to Black students with consideration for their culture.

She alleges that the school board failed to consider the child’s behavioral needs, implemented learning changes without her consent, and ignored the family’s personal recommendations to help her.

A spokesperson for WCDSB told The Canadian News he was unable to comment further on the case as it could go to court.

None of the allegations in the civil suit or in the child’s mother’s comments have been proven in court.

Disruptor and destroyer

Shortly after the four-year-old enrolled at John Sweeney Elementary School in September 2021, the school accused him of being disruptive and destructivecan we read in the court documents.

Grace told The Canadian News that her child’s behavior was appropriate for his age.

[Il se comportait comme] a normal four year olddid she say.

The civil suit alleges that the school implemented a safety plan for the child, without the family’s approval. The plan isolated the child from his peers and called for him to be assessed by an occupational therapist and undergo a medical evaluation.

Despite her disapproval of the plan, Grace contacted a child psychologist who said her son was too young to get results significant during an evaluation, according to court documents.

These also detail several instances where the child was allegedly not properly cared for, such as when he was denied access to the toilet and therefore got wet or when he ran into unattended parking.

This is not the child in question. It’s not about his behavior. It’s about what the school did and didn’t dosaid Grace.

The police called

On November 29, 2021, Grace, who was working the night shift, missed a call from school asking her to pick up her son within 15 minutes due to disruptive behavior. She replied that she would be there in 25 minutes, according to court documents.

When she arrived, she learned that the school had called the police, who drove her child home.

Why would they call the police for a four year old, for God’s sake?Grace told The Canadian News.

There’s no reason to call the police about a four-year-old child.

According to her, his behavior was no different than any other time she was called to pick him up.

He got in the back of a police car, like a criminal. […] What did he do to deserve this?

The child was then excluded from school, which means he was expelled, the civil complaint reads.

The civil suit alleges the school did not follow its own incident classification protocol when calling the police. The protocol states that the police can be called for various incidents, including an assault, a bomb threat or a death.

After the incident became public knowledge, the Ontario Minister of Education ordered a provincial third-party review of the school board’s handling of the incident. The review concluded with 14 recommendations to the school board and five to the Department of Education on how to better address anti-Black racism.

Recommendations to the school board include hiring black experts to address student behavior issues and changing policies so that staff are disciplined for racist or discriminatory acts.

The school board’s director of education, Loretta Notten, said at a meeting in April that the board would review the recommendations for consideration and implementation. However, she said at the time that some of the recommendations were beyond the scope of the school board and required provincial support.

She described the provincial report as a action plan to continue the fight against anti-black racism.

In an email sent on Monday, a spokesperson for the Catholic school board said some of the recommendations were already in place when they were made by the government-appointed reviewer, and that all recommendations were discussed with a member. from the Equity Department of the Ministry of Education.

Importantly, a meeting was held with the Department of Education in April, as the government-appointed examiner may not have fully understood what falls within the authority of the school board and what will require a review. action by the ministry can we read in the email. The school board needs this update first in order to move forward.

The spokesperson said school trustees would be updated on the progress of the recommendations in the fall.

All recommendations

Grace said she wants the council to implement all of the recommendations.

What they did, they should be held accountableshe said.

She added that she and her son are traumatized by their experience.

Kindergarten was something we looked forward to. […] We took pictures. [Le conseil scolaire] distorted everything [cette] vision for my sonshe said.

The civil complaint suggests that the child faces a series of psychological injuries, including emotional trauma, humiliation, insomnia, distrust of authority figures, inability to enjoy the life or engage in normal human interactions. She also claims that Grace is suffering physically, mentally and financially due to the situation.