Public school board dismisses trustee's complaint about tweet
Votes clear two colleagues of violating code of conduct with critical comments
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has rejected a complaint by trustee Donna Blackburn that two of her colleagues violated the board's code of conduct with their social media posts.
Blackburn had alleged that trustees Lyra Evans and Justine Bell had posted incorrect information about a contentious debate over the police resource officers who work at two of the board's high schools and also that their posts suggested some trustees were racist.
At a special board meeting Monday, six trustees voted that Evans had not broken the code of conduct provisions saying trustees must uphold board decisions, two trustees abstained and Blackburn voted in favour.
Eight trustees voted that Bell had not broken the conduct code, with Blackburn disagreeing.
At issue was a tweet Evans posted in August after the board rejected her motion to remove $96,000 in funding for two police resource officers that work at Gloucester and Ridgemont high schools and their feeder schools, and divert the money to other supports for the schools instead.
Evans had argued that police should not be in schools because racialized, Indigenous and marginalized students who have had negative experiences with police find their presence intimidating or frightening.
Evans said allowing police to work at schools contributes to the over-policing of those communities and upholds systemic racism at the school board.
During the debate, the board also heard there was support for the police resource officer program, which was set up to build bridges with those same communities.
Trustees decided they would make no changes to the police program until a wide consultation was held, including talking with students at the schools.
After the meeting, Evans tweeted that trustees had voted “in favour of putting extra police in high needs, low income, disproportionately racialized schools” and gave a “shoutout” to trustees Bell and Chris Ellis for “joining me in opposing systemic racism.”
Bell retweeted the post, then later posted a clarification explaining the board made the decision because it wanted to conduct a review and didn't have sufficient information.
Blackburn filed complaints against Evans and Bell, saying that the tweet by Evans was both factually inaccurate and suggested the trustees who had voted against Evans's position were upholding systemic racism.
The board voted to keep things the same, not to put “extra” officers into the schools or against community supports, said Blackburn's complaint.
At Monday's meeting, Blackburn said her intent in filing the complaints was to help set the parameters for acceptable comments
Trustee Rob Campbell said the tweet by Evans was a `communications issue' that might offer lessons for all trustees about tone.
during emotional debates. To suggest that some trustees promote systemic racism is unacceptable, she said.
Board chair Lynn Scott said she agreed the tweet by Evans was problematic because it mischaracterized a decision of the board.
She abstained on the vote over whether Evans had failed to uphold the conduct provision requiring trustees to uphold the implementation of board decisions and to be able to explain the rationale for them, while respectfully stating their own position.
Trustee Rob Campbell said the tweet by Evans was a “communications issue” that might offer lessons for all trustees about tone and strategy when communicating to the public, but it did not rise to the level of a conduct violation.
The board hired an independent investigator to determine the facts after the complaints were filed.