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. Read more:‘Reprehensible’ to suggest there is another side to Elgie’s racist comment: GrantYork Region trustees to undergo training in wake of scathing reportRacial incidents ignored by York board, families sayAs 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 studen ...
|
