Students rise up as DSBN hosts first equity conference
Community partners offer workshops, set up info booths for students
In one room, a workshop used writing to help students understand injustice and promote change. Down the hallway, an exploration on how to challenge prejudice and discrimination within school communities.
There were panel discussions and sessions on advocacy and anti-racism, on deconstructing existing Muslim narratives and learning about supporting LGBTQ+ youth. In the afternoon, a session led students to walk through and experience historical changes to a First Nations community.
Every student was handed a booklet, to write down their thoughts, documenting what they learned and what messages to take back into their lives and their schools.
Listen, learn, act.
Rise up.
Watching as students exited the workshops, Pratima Burton thought the main attraction would be the buffet lunch but instead saw students stop in the hallway, talking with local community groups, including Niagara Falls Community Health Centre and TOES Niagara, learning and gathering information.
“I think that they were craving this. I think they were looking for an opportunity to come together and discuss things that are on their minds and important to them,” said Burton, student achievement leader of equity, inclusion and anti-racism for the District School Board of Niagara.
“You could feel the energy as soon as they started arriving ... they’re all here for the same purpose.”
Rise Up — Students Leading the Change was DSBN’s first student wide equity conference, bringing together secondary students from across the region to address issues of inequity and inspiring change to build a more inclusive community.
About 200 students, representing each DSBN school, were invited to the conference at Niagara Falls Convention Centre.
Participants selected four workshops to attend, with the board’s equity team and a member of staff from each school — they listened and learned but did not speak during the sessions, said Burton — available for support, as well as youth counsellors and social workers in the event a student needed to step away.
It also had an inclusive buffet and a multi-faith meditation room to ensure “people were walking into an inclusive space.”
“I was stepping into each of the sessions upstairs and in every single one of them it felt like I was almost intruding because they were so engaged and tuned into what they were doing and listening to and discussing,” said Burton.
“They are equity minded students, they want to be involved, they just don’t want to be bystanders and they know they’re here to listen, learn and hopefully they get some ideas to go back to their schools if there’s any social justice initiatives that they want to work on.”
Twin sisters Laiba and Alisha Azhar said they came to the conference because they believe “we need to make a difference.” For Alisha, the highlight was the keynote speech from celebrated Canadian poet Dwayne Morgan, and for Laiba, it was an anti-Islamophobia session.
As a young Muslim, Laiba heard the racist slurs but said she didn’t understand the impact of those words or what they really meant. Attending the morning session led by National Council of Canadian Muslims “really hit me in a different place.”
“This actually happens (in the world) and I should have known when I was younger and I wish I knew so I can call it out but I didn’t,” she said. “It affects you as you’re growing up.”
Grade 10 student Yousuf Huq said what has struck him was learning the difference between a “saviour mindset” — when people think they are superior to others, trying to help when not needed — and a “helping mindset.”
“We should be helping resources for those marginalized communities,” said Huq. “How can (we) give the microphone back to those communities and let them be the voice for themselves, and say, ‘I’m here to help.’”
Grade 12 student Tasneem Elatresh said the day was “amazing” but it was difficult knowing the people who could benefit the most from the experience were not in the building.
“How do we make this so it’s not just us?” said Elatresh. “Because, yes, we have so much to learn and I have learned so much, but I do think that it’s people who are already educated or already socially, ethically minded coming here and the people who need it most, they’re not here, and that’s so frustrating to me.”
Figuring that part out is the students’ next step as they head back to their schools.
Laiba and Alisha Azhar want to do more than put posters on school hallways, in hopes of making everyone “feel safe at our school.”
Huq wants to help his community understand how to help, and the importance of letting minority groups share their stories. Burton said that is the idea. “These are our leaders, so when they go back to schools they’re going to start promoting and sharing what they’ve leaned and start pulling students in, pulling in other people,” she said. “You need somebody to start it and these are the people, these are the change-makers.”