Racist school directory tracks Black students performance
A controversial “black list” of students has a Toronto dad up in arms and taking action against the District School Board for the racist directory that allegedly tracks the “achievement gaps” of black students.
George Brown, filed a human rights claim after learning about the offensive list which he says racially profiles his18-year-old son Noah and other students who attend Etobicoke School for the Arts reports the Atlanta Black Star.
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Brown learned of the list while at a meeting with students earlier this month.
“It took the photos of the Black students in the yearbook and places it beside their names,” Brown said. “It’s not being done on the basis of collected data. It is profiled.”
Brown also argued that the list places targets unsuspecting students by placing them in categories that identifies them by race – whether they are mixed or not.
” … You were in a different kind of category, as if you had some kind of white in your background, maybe you aren’t, I guess stupid,” he said.
“But you were put in another list is you were black from Africa or Jamaica.”
The principal of ESA, Peggy Aitchison, admitted to developing the list and issuing it to teachers as a tool to measure student achievement.
“In the context and with an objective of supporting success for all students, particularly those for whom we know as a group there are gaps, I shared a list of Black students with our teaching staff at a November meeting,” Aitchison said in a statement.
“Upon reflection and discussion with others, I recognized that this was a limited, flawed, and ultimately inappropriate approach to identifying gaps in supports and so, that very same day, I retracted that compilation that was based solely on perception,” she added.
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The principal is set to be transferred to a new school after her request to move was approved by the board and parents pressured the district to let Aitchison go.
Noah has been accepted into a prestigious art school in New York, but said the list made his doubt himself.
“It made me feel as if I am not necessarily a student, but a Black student,” Noah told CTV News Toronto.
“I want my principal to know this has real emotional effects on people of color and it is damaging to their well-being. It tells them they will be only seen by their identity and that they will be racialized for the rest of their life.”
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