Spence youth novel tackles deep issues
Three years after resigning from the Toronto District School Board over a plagiarism scandal, former director of education Chris Spence has written a novel for young people about lessons of life.
The coming-of-age story called Snowball — Brothers4Life is about homophobia and mental health and basketball. Spence said it was inspired by the courage of NBA player Jason Collins, the first active male professional athlete in a major North American team sport to come out as gay. Spence is launching the young adult book Saturday to coincide with the NBA all-star celebrations.
But the book also tackles issues of race; one of the black male characters gets carded by police.
“Equity issues have always been a passion of mine,” Spence said Wednesday. “I still recall the riveting conversations I had with students in the (TDSB’s) Triangle Program (for LGBTQ students) and their experiences of being pushed out of their local schools.
Asked if he was concerned about regaining public trust with his writing, the veteran educator said only, “I do love to write and I will continue to write when I have something to say.”
Spence was the charismatic leader of Canada’s largest school board for three-and-a-half years until he was caught in January 2013 having plagiarized an opinion piece for the Star. He was found to have used unattributed sources in other articles and speeches and allegedly parts of his doctoral thesis. The University of Toronto launched an investigation into academic dishonesty in the dissertation which has been underway for three years, with no verdict yet.
The book is published by World Castle Publishing in Florida, and the weekend launch, which will include a reading, book-signing, celebration of Black History Month and a dance performance, is organized by A Different Booklist, an independent Toronto bookstore featuring African and Caribbean titles.
He made his mark early in his teaching career as a mentor of black youth, particularly boys in low-income neighbourhoods, not unlike the star of his book, Jake Bradley.