TORONTO -- The Peel District School Board is apologizing after posting “hurtful content” about an event for Black girls on their internal webpage for staff.
Earlier this week, PDSB’s communications department shared a post that included links in draft form on the board’s internal broadcast page, according to a memo issued by PDSB Thursday morning.
PDSB said the post did not meet the “equity, inclusion, anti-oppression and anti-racism standards” of the Peel board.
“We recognize that the premature sharing of the content in draft form was both hurtful and damaging to members of our Peel community, particularly Black staff members in our schools,” Tiffany Gooch, PDSB executive lead - public engagement and communications, said in the memo.
“For this, we apologize, and especially to Black, African and Caribbean staff and community members,” she added.
A Twitter user shared a screenshot of the post in question which asked staff who self-identify as Black, African or Caribbean to participate in the creation of a video for an event titled “Black Girl, You are Loved.”
According to the post, the spring event will be catered to kindergarten to Grade 8 non-binary students who self-identify as Black, African or Caribbean.
However, one of the links included in the post led to a draft sign-up form for a poetry reading which contained insensitive content.
The form thanked volunteers for signing up but appeared to be incomplete.
“This labour of love will bring them joy and hopefully inspire them to be able to be their true selves. blah blah blah,” the form read.
Gooch said the post has been removed and will be re-shared once all the information is accurate.
She added that the PDSB has “much work to do” in dismantling anti-Black racism and achieving racial equity.
“I want to apologize to Peel board staff. An incident like this should never happen under any circumstances. The event which was being communicated in the post is an important gathering of sisterhood in celebration of Black girls, and one which should not have been negatively impacted in this way,” she said.
The incident comes as the PDSB is celebrating Black History Month with events at Peel schools throughout February.
The PDSB has been the subject for its handling of inclusion before.
Last March, a third-party review found that anti-Black racism within the Peel Board continues to be a significant problem.
The report said that while Black students represent about 10 per cent of all high school students, they account for more than 22 per cent of all student suspensions.
The findings resulted in the board parting ways with its director of education. Education Minister Stephen Lecce also stepped in and appointed a supervisor to lead in making systemic changes in the board.
