HomeMy WebLinkAboutPrograms aimed at helping black students facing disciplinary issues can wipe slates clean - Globe & Mail - 06/24/2018 - Globe & Mail - 06/24/20186/25/2018 Programs aimed at helping black students facing disciplinary issues can wipe slates clean - The Globe and Mail
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Programs aimed at helping black students facing
disciplinary issues can wipe slates clean
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6/25/2018 Programs aimed at helping black students facing disciplinary issues can wipe slates clean - The Globe and Mail
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Then, this spring, the school called Ms. Craig to tell her that her 14 -year-old son had
been suspended. He'd asked why gay and lesbian were bad words, and his teacher
accused him of using a homophobic slur — his tone, apparently, was the issue.
By the time they finish high school, 42 per cent of all black students within the
Toronto District School Board are suspended at least once, compared with 18 per
cent of non -black students. Ms. Craig's son was to be part of that statistic.
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But weeks later, his destiny was reversed. The boy's record was wiped clean —
something he and his mother didn't know was possible when the suspension was
handed down.
At the end of their pilot year, programs in Toronto and Ottawa that help black
students and their parents facing disciplinary issues have assisted in more than 200
cases such as the Craigs'. With grants of $100,000 from Legal Aid Ontario, the two
programs have stopped 30 expulsions, helped shorten 33 suspensions and prompted
the withdrawal of 47 suspensions — including Ms. Craig's son's.
While academics, governments and school boards grapple with how to address
systemic racism against black students, these programs have emerged as one
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6/25/2018 Programs aimed at helping black students facing disciplinary issues can wipe slates clean - The Globe and Mail
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arranged for a mediation session between Ms. Craig and the school. Ms. Arauz said
that disciplinary hearings, in which the school's principal lays out the case against
the student in front of a panel of three trustees who serve as a jury of sorts, closely
mirror criminal justice proceedings, and that The Plug tries to avoid them whenever
possible.
In mediation, after Ms. Arauz and Ms. Craig emphasized the unnecessary severity of
the punishment and how the boy's race had played a role in his treatment, the
school agreed to scrub it from his record — a major win for Ms. Arauz.
"Students don't get that it follows them around just like a criminal record," she said.
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6/25/2018 Programs aimed at helping black students facing disciplinary issues can wipe slates clean - The Globe and Mail
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does. It makes you feel like the problem," she said.
The Toronto District School Board said it does not comment on individual cases, but
Ted Libera, the central co-ordinating principal for the board's caring and safe
schools, said mediation sessions only happen when an advocate, such as Ms. Arauz
from The Plug, is involved, and he supports parents using such resources. He said
school administrators are encouraged to pursue progressive discipline and other
supports for students before moving to suspensions or expulsions — which are
considered "last resorts."
Carl James, a York University professor who has published several reports about
anti -black racism in education, said that while some students' parents can hire a
lawyer to represent them at an expulsion hearing, or persuade school trustees to
overturn disciplinary decisions in private meetings, "if we find a disproportionate
number of blacks are below a certain social strata, they may not have some that
kind of social resources to wield that kind of influence."
This spring, Ms. Arauz arranged for a mediation session for Jonathan Wilson, a
Grade 12 student with the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB). He'd
been suspended after he was charged with an assault that had allegedly happened
outside of the school. School administrators later moved to upgrade Mr. Wilson's
punishment to a "Fresh Start" expulsion, which would require him to transfer to a
school populated by other students facing long-term suspensions or expulsions, an
environment many have described as "jail -like" to Ms. Arauz.
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6/25/2018 Programs aimed at helping black students facing disciplinary issues can wipe slates clean - The Globe and Mail
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"If someone in my role is not there to ask, `Where's the notice of suspension? What's
the appeal process?' How is a parent to know? Most parents wouldn't even know
where to go in the Education Act," she said.
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By the end of the mediation session, Mr. Wilson's suspension had also been
expunged from his record.
Nick D'Avella, the TCDSB's superintendent of education who oversees equity,
Indigenous education and community relations, could not comment on Mr. Wilson's
case for privacy reasons, but said he'd met with members of The Plug's team and
was encouraged by their work.
Legal Aid Ontario is still evaluating the success of the program and could not say
whether funding will be renewed.
While Mr. James says there is a need for programs such as The Plug, he says the
bigger issue is why black students are suspended and expelled at higher rates in the
first place.
"Are they more likely to be surveilled? Are they more likely to be seen as disruptive
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6/25/2018 Programs aimed at helping black students facing disciplinary issues can wipe slates clean - The Globe and Mail
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6/25/2018 Programs aimed at helping black students facing disciplinary issues can wipe slates clean - The Globe and Mail
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