A Parkdale Collegiate Institute teacher is under investigation after he came to class Friday wearing a black face as part of a Halloween costume.
In a letter sent Saturday night to Parkdale Collegiate Institute parents and students, and shared with the Star, Principal Julie Ardell called the incident “racist and dehumanizing.”
“As you know, many staff members and students dressed up for Halloween, but late in the morning, several students alerted the assistant principal that a white staff member was in ‘Blackface,’” he wrote.
“Cartoons of people’s race or culture are inappropriate and offensive and hurtful.”
The teacher will be assigned home until an investigation is completed, Ardell said in the letter.
“As soon as we were informed of the incident, we took immediate steps to address it, including having the staff member wash his face immediately so as not to cause further harm,” he wrote.
Ardell adds that he recognizes and regrets the damage the incident has caused to the community and that the school “must do more” against black racism. It also explains that racism against blacks, including blackface, is against the school’s code of conduct and staff or students can face “serious consequences” for engaging in such behavior.
However, community members Star spoke to said the school did not act quickly enough to remove the teacher after students alerted administration to the incident.
Two ninth-grade students who were in business class at 9:30 a.m., and several parents, told the Star that they are deeply disturbed by the incident and are calling on the Toronto District School Board to hold the teacher accountable.
“I was devastated, I was shaking. I can’t believe it, there is no excuse in 2021, in Toronto, in Parkdale, for a teacher to make a ‘mistake’, if that’s what anyone wants to call this, ”said Liz Ikiriko, an art curator whose 14-year-old work – old son Otis is in the class.
“My son was really upset. The ninth grade is really difficult … It is a transitional year and we are in a pandemic … I can’t believe in the middle of all this, this is also something else that children are going through, ”said Ikiriko. who identifies as biracial and Nigerian.
“He was really shocked by that,” he said.
In photos sent to the Star by the parents of another student, who do not want to be named for fear of being attacked for speaking, the teacher is seen wearing black face paint.
The Star contacted the teacher early Saturday afternoon, but has yet to receive a response.
The blackface incident occurs when an educator at another school in the Parkdale neighborhood, Queen Victoria Public School, received anonymous racist hate mail target her for being black on October 22. The school board’s human rights office and Toronto police are investigating, the board said in an Oct. 28 letter.
A report from the TDSB human rights office released earlier this year also noted that the board has a “serious” problem with racism against blacks and most complaints to the office refer specifically to racism against blacks. blacks.
Ikiriko’s son Otis told The Star that his entire class was shocked when they saw the teacher with a black face. The students asked him directly what his Halloween costume was supposed to be.
“He got really defensive. He said ‘I thought it would look great,’ ”Otis said. “I think he’s so immature, and as a teacher too, I was really surprised. I didn’t know what to do at the time, I didn’t know if it was going to come out. “
Then the students went to the gym for a Halloween assembly, and he said the teacher wore the black face in the meeting and it didn’t seem like any other teacher was confronting him about it.
“I was there with like 100 students and other teachers,” he said. “I think the other teachers took it very relaxed, too cold to be honest. They should have told him to take it off or go away. “
Otis said his class includes other black students and that it was upsetting and offensive to see his teacher behave this way. “I come from my mother’s side of black culture, and I think it was personally offensive to me. I really didn’t understand what he was thinking. “
He also said that his classmates reported the incident to the office that morning, but were told that the teacher was probably dressed as a demon or a zombie.
Ikiriko said her son has also had to talk to other students who feel like he’s overreacting to blackface, which has been challenging.
The TDSB needs to create quicker consequences for these problems, he said.
In the past year and a half, the TDSB has implemented new policies around racism against blacks and creating a better learning environment. A new policy that went into effect in late October 2020 around reporting and responding to racism against blacks required that all hate incidents be reported to the schools’ Human Rights Office. in 24 hours.
Ikiriko said she spoke with the school’s principal on Friday.
“I was very excited and said it would be best if someone would call me back right away. The administrator didn’t seem to know what he was talking about, but it was 2 o’clock, ”she said, adding that this happened long after the teacher had been walking all day with a black face. Ikiriko said the principal, Ardell, assured him that the superintendent had been notified of the incident.
“I said I’m not interested in apologies when [he] I can say that this is a serious mistake and then be back in class, ”he said. “There are so many levels of errors that happened.”
The Star also spoke with another parent and student in the class, who took photos of the teacher, whom The Star is keeping anonymous due to concerns about backlash.
The student said that the teacher would not give the class an explanation about the black face. “It was really uncomfortable for me, and a lot of kids were really insulted, and I thought it was just disgusting,” she said.
Mother Cathy Gatlin has a son at Parkdale CI and said she learned about the incident on Friday from other parents. She is sending an open letter to the school asking that anti-black racism at school be addressed and is encouraging other parents to sign.
Gatlin went to school on Friday afternoon to ask to discuss it. He said the secretary was not aware of the problem.
“The deputy director came out and said ‘yes, they have asked him to wash up.’ I was like, ‘but I feel like more needs to happen here,’ ”he said.
One issue the human rights office addressed in the February 2021 report is that there is a backlog of complaints in its system and they need to be resolved faster.
“There has to be more responsibility,” Gatlin said. “I wish there was a really easy anonymous way for a child to approach this, because no child should have to sit in a class and feel so uncomfortable in that situation. That is not acceptable. “
“It has to be addressed more quickly,” he said.
Reference-www.thestar.com