Pearson school board takes more steps to tackle racism
There is still a long road planned out for the Lester B. Pearson School Board as it continues to follow up on an equity, diversity and inclusivity task force report tabled last June. The West Island English board is, of course, not working in a bubble as it implements anti-racism initiatives and directives.
This week, it is requesting Grade 11 students and their parents to voluntarily complete a confidential, anonymous online survey to note if they identify as Indigenous, First Nation, Métis or Inuk, or as a non-caucasian visible minority.
This survey is being conducted in light of the 120 recommendations in the 143-page report filed by the task force, led by Myrna Lashley, an assistant professor in Mcgill University's department of psychiatry and former director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.
The report noted a lack of documentation and metrics that could provide a realistic understanding of the incidents faced by racialized populations, as well as the need to work on the reduction of anticipated disproportionate representation of racialized populations in school disciplinary policies that focus on punitive models.
The lack of hard data is an issue that was often raised during task force preparations, noted Thomas Rhymes, Pearson's assistant director general.
“(These metrics will help) the system reflect and take a look at how well it serves racialized communities or marginalized communities,” he said, adding the makeup of its schools has been an issue for years facing the board.
“We're doing a test run in the high schools at the (Grade 11) level,” he said. “I think it's a benefit for us to have a true sense of what's the profile of our schools.”
If this collection of data is deemed successful, the board intends to expand the survey to include all high school grades next fall.
The objective is to be inclusive and respect diversity among the student population and help determine if the board is serving these communities to the best of its ability, Rhymes said.
“Are the success rates or absent rates and so forth for particular communities disproportionate to what it is in the general population?” he explained. “It's all about us continuing to look in the mirror and continue to assess our practices.”
Over the past year, Pearson teachers and management teams have undergone professional development workshops tackling matters such as subconscious bias, or addressing the type of learning materials being used, such as developing reading lists of Black or South Asian authors, that would make for a more inclusive environment in the classroom, Rhymes said.
“We know this a long haul. It's not a quick fix. We're looking at this as a three-, five-, seven-year plan, to begin to roll these things out,” he said.
The board had launched its anti-racism task force two years ago after two high school students posted a video of themselves in blackface using the N-word. As well, Lindsay Place High School (which has since been shuttered) had to recall and then reprint its yearbook in 2020 after a Black graduating student was tagged in it as “most likely to become a wanted criminal.”
Racism goes beyond the confines of Pearson schools and has long existed in the West Island as it has elsewhere in Quebec and Canada — even if it's not often systematically acknowledged.
At least the Pearson board, with its task force report, is addressing this issue and it's openly being discussed, which are important steps. Another potential area of improvement to consider is for schools to make it easier for students being taunted, bullied or facing racism to come forward and be assured that their concerns are being dealt with urgently by educators.