Peel District school board issues apology after posting ‘hurtful content’ about Black girls

The Peel District School Board (PDSB) has issued a statement in which they’re apologizing after posting “hurtful content” about an event for Black girls on their webpage for staff and teachers.

Earlier this week, PDSB’s Communications department shared a post that included links in draft form on the board’s internal broadcast page.

https://twitter.com/thethanksiget/status/1364389979472990209

“This post did not meet the equity, inclusion, anti-oppression, and anti-racism standards of the Peel board,” said Tiffany Gooch, Executive Lead of Public Engagement and Communications.

In the post, PDSB asked staff who self-identify as Black, African or Caribbean to engage in the creation of a video for an event titled “Black Girl, You are Loved.”

It says that the event is centered on kindergarten to Grade 8 non-binary students that self-identify as Black, African or Caribbean.

The draft reads, “Thank you for your participation in this special project for our young Black female students. The labour of love will bring them joy and hopefully inspire them to be able to share their true selves.” blah blah blah.”

“We recognize that the premature sharing of the content in draft form was both hurtful and damaging to members of our Peel community, particularly Black staff members in our schools,” Gooch said in Thursday’s statement.

“For this, we apologize, and especially to Black, African and Caribbean staff and community members.”

In July 2020, the PDSB named a new interim education director following scathing reports the board failed to tackle widespread racism within the school system.

The school board was under the Ministry of Education’s supervision at the time after a review found evidence of systemic racism.

The ministry also accused the board of being too dysfunctional and lacking the “will” to tackle anti-Black and systemic racism. This lead to the removal of the director of education Peter Joshua in June of last year.

The PDSB came under fire again in March again over allegations of systemic racism towards Black families after a parent told CityNews he was banned from stepping foot on the school board properties.