A Montreal-area father said he's shocked by the depiction of a ‘criminal’ in a high school workbook, and reached out to a civil rights advocate to act.
George Stetka said his daughter, who attends Centennial High School in Longueuil, showed him her workbook for French class and he couldn't believe what he saw.
Inside was an exercise where students were asked to describe images of what the workbook referred to as would-be gangsters.
Both of them were people of colour.
“I was shocked that this is yet another example of many, many examples we've seen in other schools and other places,” Stetka said.
Troubled by it, Stetka reached out to civil rights advocate Joel DeBellefeuille on what happened to be the first day of Black History Month.
“The policies on discrimination and racism, obviously, are failing at this moment. I mean, this shouldn't be happening,” said DeBellefeuille, founder of Red Coalition.
Taking aim at the provincial government, DeBellefeuille said there needs to be more of a top-down approach to tackle the effect of systemic racism on children.
“These are our children. This is our future. These are the people that are going to eventually be running these schools,” he said.
“And if they're taught the wrong things from the beginning, the cycle -- the systemic cycle -- of discrimination and racism will continue, unfortunately.”
The school board said a teacher downloaded the workbook from the internet and it is not part of the curriculum.
“The teacher — I'm sure she's not a racist. But she and other people before her that have seen this image just looked at it like no big deal. But it is a big deal,” said Stetka.
The Riverside School Board has apologized for the incident.
“We're so sorry about this, I'm sorry parents had to see that, that the students had to see that, and that some students were made to believe that’s an accurate representation of people in their community with dark skin,” said Sylvain Racette, the board’s director general.
The school board wouldn't say if any disciplinary action is planned against the teacher, though it did say she would be taking back the workbook and apologizing to the class.
In addition to apologizing, the board says it will also explain to students why this workbook is inappropriate and will talk to staff as well.
It’s something Stetka said is a teachable moment for children.
“It's just another teachable moment of many. You know, my daughter is mixed. Her mother is Black. And we have a lot of these talks,” he said.
LISTEN ON CJAD 800 RADIO: One Montreal-area parent is outraged at illustrations in his daughter’s textbook
