Two years after racism intervention, there is hope for the Peel District School Board

It has been almost two years since the Ford government appointed a supervisor for the Peel District School Board (PDSB) as it grappled with systemic racism.

Students were paying the price, caught in a system that failed to adequately support them.

Kathy McDonald is a Black trustee who has been fighting on the inside to make the schools better for Black, Indigenous, Muslim and low-income students.

In an interview with CityNews, McDonald recounts the many stories she has heard from the community over the years.

“I remember going to a workshop on the board. A student said there was a white kid that gave a joke. Everybody laughed. It was inappropriate and disruptive. A Black kid gave the same joke about 30 minutes into the class, and he was told, ‘You and your monkey friends better settle down,'” she says.

The Brampton trustee says racism has been embedded in the culture at the Peel District School Board, and Black students are regularly stigmatized.

“If a Black kid is disruptive, they are criminalized and called a future gang leader at four years old, “says McDonald.

“You have guidance councillors telling our children, ‘You should be a plumber because the university is above your destiny.’ Or, ‘You are destined to be a baby mama.”

In June 2020, the community held a march demanding change after several reviews and an external investigation found Black students were being streamed away from university, suspended at higher rates, and were targets of degrading and racist comments made by principals and teachers.

When another report declared the board was dysfunctional, the minister of education appointed a supervisor to oversee it: Bruce Rodrigues, a veteran educator who was once director of the Toronto Catholic District School Board.

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When asked by CityNews if racism had been happening at the Peel District School Board, Rodrigues answered “absolutely.” He says they are getting to the stage where it is being weeded out.

“I would say that we’re starting to do some of that work, and it’s starting to stick and take deep roots,” he says.

Since Rodrigues took over almost two years ago, the director of education has been replaced, and many staff have left, including principals, vice-principals and superintendents. He will not call it cleaning house, but it certainly looks like that is the result. There is also a new determined effort to hire staff of all backgrounds.

Roughly 80 per cent of Peel students are racialized, yet about 80 per cent of staff on the board are white. McDonald believes that results in biased decision-making. She points to gifted programs: the vast majority are in more affluent, less diverse communities.

“In south Mississauga, you have a little under 400 gifted spots,” she says, “But in Brampton, where most of our students come from, you have around 60 [and] not more than 80 gifted spots.”

One playground is connected to the Peel District School Board. Photo courtesy: CityNews.

McDonald points to the disparity in playgrounds. She compares one at a school in a wealthier and less-diverse community, which she describes as something out of Disney, to one in Brampton’s low-income neighbourhood.

The Brampton playground, she says, is full of weeds. Rodrigues doesn’t disagree that there has been a disparity in how capital dollars have been spent.

When asked why it has taken so long to address these issues, he answers, “We are just getting to the point where we recognize systemic racism.”

After two years under supervision, McDonald has hope that change is finally happening within the board for the first time.

She says there are written policies that hold educators accountable for how students are treated and a process for staff and students to report racism — something that did not exist before.

McDonald believes the culture of conspiracy and fear is being replaced by one of empowerment.

“I am grateful I see changes that no longer allow these things to go unreported,” she says.

However, there is still a long way to go. The minister of education issued 27 directives that must be completed before the PDSB can regain control. Nine have been fully completed, and a few more are partially completed.

Last August, nine trustees out of 12 wrote an open letter asking for an end to provincial supervision. McDonald did not sign it. Ontario’s Minister of Education, Steven Lecce, refused the request.

Trustee Kathy McDonald says the incidences happened between 2017 to 2019 before the Ontario government appointed a supervisor to oversee the board. Photo courtesy: Twitter.

Trustee says she was targeted for whistleblowing

McDonald reached out to CityNews via Twitter in response to a story about threats against Ontario politicians.

“I’ve had my car keyed twice while on school property. I’ve had four nails in my tires quite mysteriously,” she says, adding she has also been subjected to verbal threats.

McDonald alleges that PDSB staff members accessed her children’s school records when they had no reason to. She calls these “macro aggressions” that happened as she tried to do her job as a trustee and call out racism.

“Just the violence that people think they can inflict on you simply because you’re not agreeing with them or you have different ideas, or you’re challenging their views on Black students on Indigenous students on Muslim students.”

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McDonald says the incidences happened between 2017 to 2019 before the Ontario government appointed a supervisor to oversee the board, as tensions ran high exceptionally high.

She reported the incidences to the police, who told her to be aware of her surroundings. No charges were ever laid. McDonald says one case of staff harassment is currently under investigation by the PDSB and she is unable to speak about it.

McDonald has four children who all went to schools within Peel, but she pulled them out because of systemic racism and its impact on them. Her eldest son, who is now 23, was a straight-A student.

She says that when he was in middle school, he was told by a PDSB teacher that “your kind doesn’t go to university,” and a guidance counsellor told him “his expectations were too high.”

He just graduated from the University of Toronto and is in the process of applying to medical school.