Caution: This story contains details of racism and attempted suicide. If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call 9-8-8.
GUELPH – A group of parents hoped to delegate about anti-Black racism at a recent Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) meeting, but was denied the opportunity.
Instead, 12 people with the Upper Grand Black Parents Council (BPC) sat in the gallery during the May 27 meeting, wearing shirts that said “keep Black kids safe.”
The group, with members from Rockwood, Guelph and Orangeville, included parents, graduates and elementary and high school students.
UGDSB officials said two delegations were denied because they did not fit with any items on the agenda.
The delegate applications referenced the board’s equity statement, a regular item on every meeting agenda.
But board spokesperson Heather Loney said the statement is not considered an agenda item; it is “intended to demonstrate UGDSB’s commitment and establish a respectful and reflective tone.”
She noted the BPC delegations were not the only ones denied – the board also denied a delegation request about nutrition programs.
In a press release, the BPC called the denial “not just a procedural oversight,” but an act of exclusion that “reinforces the very systemic failures we have been naming for years.”
Members said they attended the board meeting because their children are not safe and “trust has been broken.
“Healing cannot begin when the people harmed are silenced,” the release stated.
The UGDSB equity statement describes the board’s “responsibility to identify and describe racism and oppression and then work to dismantle it.”
The statement also affirms the board’s commitment to “disrupting systemic racism,” implementing anti-racism and anti-oppression training and being accountable to all UGDSB staff, families and stakeholders.
While trustee Alethia O’Hara-Stephenson read the statement on May 27, BPC member and Rockwood parent Nia James said “Shame. Shame. Shameful.”
Chair Ralf Mesenbrink responded, “I would ask the gallery to be quiet, please.”
The group sat silently until after a delegation from union representatives. Once the delegation was over, the BPC walked out.
As she was leaving, James said “still shameful.”
Tim Mathewson and Amy Reinders, standing, delegated on behalf of OSSTF District 18 during an Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) meeting on May 27. Members of the UGDSB Black Parents Council, seated behind the union representatives, also planned to delegate but were denied.
Students’ experiences
Grade 11 student Tia Powers and recent graduates Angel Powers and Mak (who is using a nickname for privacy) were among those attending the meeting.
Mak and Angel graduated in June. Angel said although they aren’t UGDSB students anymore, they felt it was important to show up because they still have sisters and friends at the board.
Mak said her eight-year-old sister has already started experiencing racism at school and “I don’t want it to go any further.”
“UGDSB failed us,” Angel added. “And they will continue to fail other students … they need to be stopped.”
During Angel’s time at high school she said she didn’t feel safe, secure or seen.
She said she felt “separated from everyone else” due to frequent racist incidents that were not adequately addressed by staff.
Mak called the racism and subsequent school board responses “dehumanizing.”
“I was called the N-word all the time,” she said.
“Lots of kids would tell me I was too white to be Black and too Black to be white.”
When Mak was walking on a crosswalk after school with a friend, she said a “known racist” student accelerated towards them, almost hitting them with his car, and called them the N-word.
Tia said there was a discussion among students in one of her classes about how the N-word is “just a word,” and people are “too sensitive” about it.
She said people kept looking over at her during the discussion.
The teacher did not intervene, Tia said, just asked afterwards if it made her uncomfortable. It did.
Back row, from left, Angel Powers, Mak, Tia Powers and Patti Thomas. Front row: Emma Thomas.
Mak and Angel said on multiple occasions a staff member advised them “not to fit into the stereotype of being an angry Black woman” or a “crazy Black girl.”
“She said it so casually, like there was nothing bad about [it],” Angel said.
Mak said the board denying the delegations was insulting, adding, “They don’t want to hear what we have to say.”
Angel added, “We were sitting in there because it’s something that is important to us and they just don’t care.”
“This whole equity thing is just a lie,” Mak said. “They don’t do anything for us because they don’t care.”
Mak said she refuses to be silenced and wants to show younger people they can “stand up and speak out.”
And she wants people to know the extent of the harm she feels the UGDSB is perpetuating.
“I will continue to keep speaking out about it because it was my lived experience and it was torture,” she said.
“I starved myself for six months to try to end my life.
“The racism was so bad I was going mentally insane – I couldn’t eat … Thank God I’m here today.”
Parents’ perspectives
Rockwood parents Nyesha Ward, Colin Samuels and Nia James, Guelph mom Marsha Myrie and Orangeville mom Patti Thomas were among the parents at the meeting.
Samuels said his daughter is called the N-word daily and “teachers won’t do anything.”
The parents said their children avoid telling teachers about racist incidents because they’re afraid of being punished or treated as though they are the problem.
Ward wasn’t surprised they were “systematically shut out” of the UGDSB meeting.
She said board officials don’t want to be part of difficult, uncomfortable conversations, but without this dialogue nothing will change.
It was important for the BPC to show up, Ward noted, so board officials could “sit with us in the room and feel what we are feeling.”
James said it’s been over 130 days since they first started asking UGDSB officials to address ongoing racism, and they have yet to receive an adequate response, with the trustees and director ignoring their emails.
Myrie said their delegations were not about re-hashing problems, but about rebuilding trust and moving forward.
“I can’t understand why they wouldn’t want to have that conversation,” she said.
She added the board’s response helped her understand the racism she and her son have experienced at his school.
“Teachers are not trained, principals are not trained, and procedures aren’t working,” she said.
Attitudes of school staff members reflect that of board leadership, Ward added.
“This is what systemic racism looks like,” Myrie said.
And what that tells “Black parents, Black students and Black community members is that we don’t belong here.”
Guelph parent Marsha Myrie shows the back of the UGDSB Black Parents Council t-shirts, which say “Keep Black kids safe.” In the background, from left, are Tia Powers, Angel Powers and Patti Thomas.
The BPC released an open letter on April 1, outlining what they call “Deeply entrenched and highly dangerous anti-Black racism within the UGDSB” and calling for a board-wide third-party equity audit.
A week later, the board announced it would engage in an independent third-party human rights review.
Board officials did not mention the open letter in connection to the review or inform BPC of it – the council first heard of the review through the Advertiser.
Samuels said if the board had connected with the BPC after the letter and communicated with them about the review, relations between the council and board would be different now.
Instead, board officials called the letter inflammatory misinformation that undermined “the real, difficult and ongoing work being done by many in our system” and did not engage in conversation with the BPC.
UGDSB officials told the Advertiser they could not comment on the issues brought forward by the BPC this week because doing so could undermine the review.
“We are committed to fostering learning and working environments where students, staff and community members are safe, valued and treated with dignity,” Loney stated.
James said the BPC is growing as more parents reach out and share similar experiences, adding this collective means they can build each other up and keep momentum.
The board has its system, “but we have ours too,” she said.
The board is going to have to face the issues the BPC is raising “sooner or later,” James said.
Myrie added that if board officials continue to ignore the problem, it will only fester.
Mesenbrink said when the new human rights policy is brought to a board meeting, after the review and consultation are complete, parents would have an opportunity to delegate.
In the meantime, Mesenbrink said people can send their concerns to the human rights reviewers at tejoin.com/scroll/808377056.
With files from Sam Odrowski
