Board to apologize to York parent after complaints

School body settles, agrees to take 12 steps to tackle racism within the system

More than a year after she took on racism in the halls of the York Region District School Board, Charline Grant finally got the apology she wanted.

Grant’s public fight against the board came to an end this week, after the two parties agreed to a mediated settlement of three human rights complaints the York parent had filed over the past year, outlining discrimination she and her family had experienced at the hands of the board.

Among them, allegations that her son was called “intimidating” and “angry” by his teachers because of his race, and then the high-profile incident last fall, when Grant herself was called the “N-word” by an elected trustee.

As part of the minutes of settlement, obtained by the Star, the board has agreed to take a dozen concrete steps to tackle racism within the board including ongoing anti-racism training for all staff, creating additional supports for black males in the board and in a rare step, even offering an apology to the Grants and the black community, acknowledging that they had come across as “hostile” and “dismissive” to the families concerns.

“Initially, all we were asking for was an apology and acknowledgment and how we could work together to fix this,” Grant said. “All we wanted was an apology and now, all of this progress has also come out of it.”

According to the settlement, the apology will be read by the new director at a public board meeting in early June. The settlement comes as the new interim director, Kathi Wallace, takes the helm of a school board that has been mired in controversy over the past year. Just last month, a three-month probe into the school board unveiled that students, parents and staff had feelings of “alienation, marginalization and discrimination” and that a culture of fear was rampant within the board. The report led to the dismissal of the director of education last month.

Minister of Education Mitzie Hunter, who appointed the two provincial reviewers to investigate the board, ordered it to implement 22 directives including establishing a human rights office; reinstating the Every Student Counts survey that will capture “statistics relating to incidents of racism;” and ongoing training for all staff on equity and human rights.

The board has met all the deadlines set out by the minister so far.

Some of those initiatives were reiterated in the settlement, said Roger Love, Grant’s lawyer from the Human Rights Legal Support Centre.

Board chair Loralea Carruthers said the board wants to “ensure no other family has to go through this.”

“Trustees are focused on creating a safe, welcoming and inclusive learning environment and are making positive progress with rebuilding trust with families,” Carruthers said.

Grant first filed a human rights complaint last February, after allegations that her children faced discrimination by school staff because of their race and religion. She filed another complaint in April, to take on the board for their mishandling of the incident involving former trustee Nancy Elgie, who apologized and resigned her seat after referring to Grant with a racial slur after a public meeting.

As part of the settlement, the board said they “acknowledge the (ministry) report’s criticism of its failure to respond appropriately to the use of a racist slur towards a parent by a former trustee.”

At the time, board had opted to pursue an internal HR investigation into Elgie’s use of the slur, instead of launching a code-of-conduct probe.

Love said the board’s apology is a “meaningful first step.”