Disproportionate Impact, the Safe Schools Act and Racial Profiling in Schools

Reflecting on Authoritarian Disciplinary Techniques

The Role of Conflict/Conflict Resolution in Anti-Racism Education Curriculum

Teaching Conflict and Conflict Resolution in School: (Extra-) Curricular Considerations

Discipline for Democracy? School Districts’ Management of Conflict and Social Exclusion

The Challenge to Create a Safer Learning Environment for Youth

News/Opinions

If Youth Learn Violence, They Will Live Violently [ Toronto Star ]

SCSAP Report ....

The Road to Health: A Final Report on School Safety

CTV Newsnet: SCSAP Chair Julian Falconer on the Crisis in TDSB - Jan. 10/08 

'Culture of Silence' Blamed for Death of a Son - Manners' Mom

Disproportionate Impact, the Safe Schools Act and Racial Profiling in Schools

A student's place is in the classroom. When a student is suspended from school, the student is suspended from learning.

By Gary Pieters, M.Ed.

July 8, 2003

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Schools are a microcosm of the society in which we live. Frequently, what takes place in schools are a reflection of what takes place in the wider society. In educational settings, school profiling has recently become a salient issue in understanding the dynamics of education and what takes place within and among schools. EQAO High Stakes Testing and its utility in rating schools as high and low performing, the use of the learning opportunity index, [the use of essential, applied and academic to stream students], school improvement, dress codes, student achievement and other factors are all part of this lexicon although there role in profiling seem invisible [hidden]. While there are many dimensions to school profiling, the issue which this page will focus on is racial profiling in schools.

It can be argued that this terminology used to describe various elements of school policies, practices and culture that have a negative impact on racialized students have ungone changes, but there consequences upon racialized students have created enough concern to prompt the label racial profiling in schools. This reflection on racial profiling in schools focus on the negative differential impact of policies, practices and environment [hidden curriculum] on the life chances and achievement of racialized students [black students] in educational settings.

The Safe Schools Act was implemented by the government of Ontario in 2001. Included in the Safe Schools Act are the following guidelines on behaviour, safety and discipline in schools:

• Teachers can suspend students for one school day.
• School principals can expel students from their school for up to one school year.
• Parents or guardians can request a review and/or an appeal of an expulsion.
• There are mandatory requirements for students who have been expelled to attend a strict discipline or equivalent program in order to re-enter the regular school system.
• School boards are required to provide [academic/social] programs for suspended students
• Parents at a school site can decide on a dress code or a school uniform for students.
• Criminal background checks are required of anyone working in a school and principals have the authority to deny access to anyone who poses a threat to school safety.
• The opening or closing exercises in schools must include the singing of O Canada.

As a result of the Safe Schools Act, are black/racialized students subjected to excessive application of these guidelines through harsh discipline/punishment because of perceptions based on race, class, culture or socio-economics? Apparently, there is a strong body of opinion in the community supported by recent statements from the Ontario Human Rights Commission that believe this is the case.

In reviewing this issue in a historical context, investigations and studies including The Royal Commission on Learning, The Stephen Lewis Report, The Education of Black Students in Toronto Schools Report, The Every Student Surveys, and Drop Our or Push Out? The Dynamics of Black Students' Disengagement from School seem to provide a wide body of evidence that suggest that racial profiling exist pervasively in society and impacts disproportionately on the black community. The evidence from the findings of these and other studies illustrate that from the worldwiew of racialized/black students, schools practices are more likely seen as inequitable in application and results.

A recently published study of Toronto high school students entitled Racial and Ethnic Minority Students' Perceptions of School Disciplinary Practices: A Look At Some Canadian Findings by Scot Wortley and Martin Ruck indicate that:

The results of the logistic regression analyses indicated that (1) minority students were all more likely than White students to perceive discriminatory treatment in terms of teacher treatment, school suspension practices, the use of police, and police treatment. In general, Black students were the most likely to perceive discriminatory treatment, followed by South Asian students, next students from "other" racial/ethnic backgrounds and followed by Asian students. Teacher treatment is the only case where this general pattern was not observed with Asian students being slightly more likely than students from "other" racial/ethnic backgrounds to perceive differential treatment; (2) males were more likely than females to perceive that members of their racial/ethnic group would be suspended, have the police called on them, and be treated worse by the police at school than other students.

Similarly, an American report entitled Racial Profiling and Punishment in US Schools by Tammy Johnson et. al. indicate that:

Students of color are often subjected to racial stereotyping when it comes to school discipline. African American students in particular are suspended and expelled at disproportionate rates to their white counterparts, and in many cases are punished more severely for less serious and more subjectively defined infractions. In 1998 while African American students comprised 17.1 percent of the US student population, they represented 32.7 percent of suspended students nationally.

Unlike many states in America, in Ontario, statistics are not kept on student's suspensions or expulsions from schools by race and culture. However, it is argued that the recently implemented Safe Schools Act has been a catalyst that amplified the magnitude of school suspensions, expulsions and other punitive measures that have a disproportionately negative impact on students of colour, particularly black students. Data sources on student suspensions from schools in Toronto, support the concern that the rate of increase in suspensions soared since the implementation of the Safe Schools Act. In a recent article from the Canadian Press entitled Schools Suspend Scores of Students, the statistical facts indicate that schools in Toronto handed out 17,371 suspensions in the 2000-01 school year. In 2001-02 that figure rose to 24,238, a 40 per cent increase.In 2001-02 there were around 150 expulsions from Toronto Schools. Kathleen Wynne, a Toronto area school trustee, who sits on expulsions hearings at the TDSB loudly lamented on the significant increase in suspensions and expulsions which she has seen since the implementation of the Safe Schools Act and added that a disproportionate amount of the students consequenced through expulsions were black males. The causal factors of punishment in schools which illustrate racial profiling in schools are multifaceted and this prompts more questions than there are answers to the issues and concerns about racial profiling in schools.

In an essay entitled, Reflecting on Authoritarian Disciplinary Techniques That Have a Negative Impact on School Settings and Foster Systemic Violence and Student Disengagement, educator, Gary Pieters raised the following points:

... is the intention of discipline to reverse undesired behaviours or to punish students? If it is to reverse undesired behaviours, students are provided with opportunitities to improve through counselling, peer mediation, advisory, mentoring, and inclusive learning communities interventions. If the intent is to punish, then removal from the school setting through suspensions and expulsions will be seen as the only ways to consequence student misbehaviour in school settings. In systemic terms, the latter authoritarian actions are meant to foster alienation and disengagement from the education process. Overt reliance on punitive disciplinary techniques may in fact have a disproportionate negative impact on the students they are designed to help. Such policies may make the school climate ridden with fear, unsafe, intimidating, alienating and impersonal and may also have the effect of pushing students out of school or fostering school drop outs.

In a recently published book On Time, On Task, On a Mission [2002], by Dr. Chris Spence, a Toronto area educator and area superintendent of schools, Dr. Spence states that:

... I have been thinking a lot about lately-public education. Is it just rhetoric that assumes our public education system offers every child an equal chance to achieve? Our society's sense of justice and fairness is at the root of this issue. In spite of this, schools generally tend to promote the children of advantage and discourage those of disadvantage. [p. 111]

Parents, educators and advocates are aware of the broader societal impact of inequities in education. The realization is, that the learning conditions which are fostered by unequal application of discipline/punishment in schools is disturbing at worst. The need to remedy such systemic inequities that are exacerbated by the Safe Schools Act is at the heart of racialized/black parents expression of community solidarity against racial profiling in schools.

On September 18, 2002, the Organization of Parents of Black Children [OPBC], in their presentation to the Education Equality Task Force, chaired by Dr. Mordechai Rozanski stated as follows:

We are dissatisfied with the under-representation of our students in the university, and inadequate school support contributes directly to their low participation. ...Under the Safe Schools Act, a disproportionate number of African Canadian students are suspended or expelled from school. Our need is therefore for funding that promotes retention which is crucial to academic success. We do want the dropout statistics of our students from school to decline; we want the school to help lessen the criminalisation of our youth, especially the males [OPBC - September 18, 2002, p.4]

At a public meeting held by Toronto District School Board [TDSB] provincially appointed Supervisor Paul Christie, on July 8, 2003, Vickie McPhee, a parent and community advocate stated as follows:

Mr. Christie do you have any idea of the living and lived experiences for Black children as young as 6 years old and youth in the TDSB? Let me help you. Each and everyday they are sent into an environment where firstly they are not welcomed. Secondly they are not represented in staff or administrative personal, the curriculum is exclusive and racist in its delivery, the Education Act is designed to harass them and the Code of Conduct is executed on them by some of the most racist people in the school system. [The Safe Schools Coordinator] should be fired and charged with the crimes he is guilty of. Lastly, from the moment the National Anthem is played they are reminded that this is not their land, home or school. The Ontario Human Rights Commission is now looking at cases of Racial Profiling in the TDSB schools. I ask you, Will you continue the cuts to public education that are clearly racist to each and every Black student?

This reflection illustrates that for many racialized/black students, punishment in schools dominate the school environment more than actual learning of the curriculum for their required subjects. The connection of schools as sites of knowledge production seems to elude students who are disproportionately impacted by harsh discipline, suspensions and expulsions. Their disengagement and dropout from school becomes an inevitable result of the pushout factor which suspensions and expulsions foster within the educational system. The alarm bells that racial profiling in schools present for society is significant. This is an issue too important to ignore or pass on. It is our responsibility to reach at the causality and do something about the intended and unintended consequences that the Safe Schools Act has produced in fostering concerns about racial profiling in schools.

Working against racial profiling in schools should engage all. For example, in December 2002, an article in the Toronto Star, prompted this electronic discourse in an educators e-mail conferencing forum:

Educator A: I thought this would happen... from Friday's Dec. 6 STAR B11, "Schools target blacks: Lawyer" --Racial profiling 'wreaking havoc'. Racial profiling is an epidemic in Toronto schools, black community leaders say. [E-Mail: JM, December 8, 2002, Racial profiling]

My posting in response to Educator A: I would like to suggest that you post the entire article so that people can be better informed on this issue and what the article is trying to inform us about. A headline does not give full context to this article. Racial profiling does exist in institutional settings but that is not to say that institutions are inherently racist. What is being said is that policies and procedures produce a range of practices that may be differential in application and impact on some more than others. As educators, we cannot isolate ourselves from broader societal issues such as racial profiling, systemic discrimination and the right to freedom from discrimination. The students in our classrooms see schools as a microcosm of society and as educational leaders in classrooms we will have to frequently check our assumptions to ensure that our students get the message through our words and actions that schools are harassment and discrimination free zones. [E-Mail: G. Pieters, December 8, 2002, Re: Racial profiling] I would like to see further studies done on this issue because it is an area of concern for some citizens of Toronto.

To ensure that equity in education is the reality for all students, it is important that a cumulative analysis of concerns around this issue be conducted in an attempt to uncover what is working, what is not working and what need to change/stop in order to enable all students to receive and understand the value of a good education in learning environments that are equitable, inclusive and free from any forms of discrimination.

The Human Rights Code, Canadian Charter of Rights, Ontario Anti-Racism and Ethnocultural Policy and School District Equity Policies are guiding principles on paper, however, there is much work to do in terms of applying these to the lived experiences. Now that the focus has shifted to schools, implementation will be the key as there are enough policies floating around the education system that prohibit any forms of discrimination, differential treatment or unequal application of school policies.

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Gary Pieters is an experienced and accomplished educator and administrator with over 10 years of experience. Currently, Gary is the Vice-Principal at an elementary school in Toronto. Gary has also been active as a volunteer in the community for many years. Gary currently serves as co-chair of The Committee to Commemorate and Memorialize the Abolition of Slave Trades (CMAST). He has a wide interest in equity, diversity and human rights. Gary was appointed to the 2006-2007 Community Editorial Board of The Toronto Star where his focus, and editorial page columns has been highlighting the contributions of individuals from diverse communities to in Canadian history and institutions. Gary is also a member of the board of directors of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations [UARR].

Thanks for visiting my page. I can be reached at gpieters@oise.utoronto.ca

Copyright 2003-2008 Gary Pieters, All Rights Reserved. Published on July 8, 2003. Site Design and Resources Updated on January 14, 2008. Academic Content and Photographic Images From This Site May Not Be Used or Reproduced In Any Form Without The Written Consent Of The Author Of This Homepage.