Black-Focused School Wins Approval
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In a tight vote, Toronto District School Board trustees Tuesday night approved a contentious proposal for a black-focused school that opponents argued would be the equivalent of segregation.
The 11-9 vote in favour came after an evening of impassioned pleas both for and against the school from community members, including one from the mother of slain 15-year-old Jordan Manners.
Tuesday night’s vote means that an alternative Afro-centric school will open in the city in September, 2009, but its location and grade levels are still to be determined.
“This is a bold decision. We’re opening ourselves up for real change in the system,” trustee Michael Coteau, said after the vote.
Angela Wilson, a community member who brought the idea forward, added: “It’s a bittersweet thing because it should have happened a long time ago and it shouldn’t have brought all this pain back to our black community.”
Trustee Josh Matlow, who opposed the motion, said that it would simply lead to more divisiveness among students.
“We don’t believe that students should be divided by race, even if it’s with the best of intentions,” he said.
Earlier in the evening, Loreen Small, Jordan’s mother, urged trustees to quash the proposal.
“Black school is segregation,” Ms. Small said. “It’s not right.”
She was among 20 speakers who addressed trustees on the issue. Her son, Jordan, was shot to death in the hallway of C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in North York last May.
About 200 people packed a boardroom and an overflow room Tuesday night, along with the media, to hear the conclusion of the long-simmering debate.
Speakers in favour of the school said it’s misleading to equate it to segregation of black students.
“It’s not about segregation, it’s about self-determination,” said Ms. Wilson, who first proposed the idea to the school board.
Another speaker, Arlo Kempf, a father and former teacher, said that the board approving a black-focused school would be something “courageous.”
“Seeing themselves [black students] in the curriculum, in their instructors is what’s needed,” Mr. Kempf said.
But Courtney Betty, a Toronto lawyer, argued that creating such a school would be failing students.
“We cannot look at knee-jerk, Band-Aid solutions any longer,” Mr. Betty said.
Others added that the proposal offered few specific details.
TDSB statistics reveal that many black students are struggling. The dropout rate for students of English-speaking Caribbean descent is highest among all groups at 40 per cent compared with 23 per cent for those with Canadian roots, according to tracking data of a cohort of students between 2000 and 2005.
The proposal for the Afrocentric alternative school was in response to a request submitted in July by members of the black community, who were alarmed by the high dropout rate.
“We recognize that opening one school is not going to solve the problem, but we are committed to closing the achievement gap,” Christopher Usih, a superintendent at the board and one of the authors of the proposal, said in an interview Tuesday.
Trustees Tuesday night voted on four recommendations that come with an initial price tag of $820,000:
- Open a black-focused alternative school in September, 2009, and set up a team to determine such things as grade level, location and appropriate curriculum.
- Set up a three-year pilot program in three existing schools that will integrate the history, culture and experiences of blacks in society.
- Team up with York University and other postsecondary institutions to establish a centre for staff development, research and innovation to track data and test best practices to help marginalized and vulnerable students.
- Have the director of education look at other proposals and develop an action plan for improving achievement among underperforming students.
The idea for a black-focused school has been around since at least 1995, when a royal commission recommended it.
However, Premier Dalton McGuinty has expressed reservations about a black-focused school in Toronto. It will be the second such school in Canada: An elementary school in the predominately black community of North Preston, N.S., has an Afro-centric philosophy.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne fears that it will spur other cultural and religious groups to lobby for their own separate schools within a public system.
“My preference is that we have all our kids learning together,” Ms. Wynne said in an interview before Tuesday night’s board meeting.
“My preference is the initiatives around curriculum are expanded,” she said.One Grade 11 student attending Jarvis Collegiate Institute echoed that sentiment.
“There’s no need to make a whole different school for just black people; you can just make certain programs in regular schools and get them focused there,” said Jamaal Thomas, who was making his way to class yesterday.
He said that students are taught some black history in schools, “but it could be a little bit more. All we have is, what, Black History month? So we could get more in some other months.”
(Posted on January 30, 2008)
Toronto Black School Approved
Don Peat, Sarah Green, Bryn Weese, Toronto Sun, Jan. 30, 2008
Toronto District School Board trustees approved creating the province’s first publicly funded Africentric school last night but not by much.
Trustees voted 11-9 in favor of the measure after four hours of delegations and debate.
More than 20 speakers tried to rally both for and against the black-focused alternative school during the special board meeting. At least 18 trustees spoke to the motions to create the school along with placing Africentric curriculum in three other schools.
“We’re happy but the struggle continues,” parent Angela Wilson said after the vote. “We have layers and layers of things to do. This is not the only thing so stay tuned.”
Wilson and community worker Donna Harrow originally asked the board to create the school. They still would like to see it open this September, not the proposed date one year later.
“Getting a bunch of trustees to say yes to something is only the beginning,” Harrow said. “We will continue to keep them committed to this.”
Trustee Michael Coteau voted in favor of the motion although he admits he initially opposed the concept.
CHANGED MIND
“I think this is the beginning stage of really looking at the issues that affect the black community,” he said.
“This is not a final solution to a huge problem that not only effects the black communities but all Torontonians.”
“I think the board made an error in judgment,” Trustee Josh Matlow said after voting against creating the school. “I think we have in principle divided our system by the colour of one’s skin … however, now that we’ve made a decision we can’t allow this to fail.”
The two student trustees spoke out against the schools and symbolically voted against them. Student trustee votes aren’t counted.
Education director Gerry Connelly applauded the vote.
“These decisions will help provide environments that will motivate and inspire our students, re-engaging them and closing the achievement gap,” Connelly stated in a press release issued just after the vote.
Board officials will hold a press conference today to discuss the board’s next steps.
Before the vote, Harrow told trustees there has been plenty of heated debate but no real talk about the actual plan they proposed.
NOT FOR BLACKS ONLY
The proposal was not for a black-focused school with only black students, teachers and curriculum, Harrow said.
“This is a school where all children could come in and be nurtured and supported into success,” Harrow said angrily. “No one ever said little white children couldn’t come.”
No other alternative school endured this kind of debate, she charged.
“We as black people are being asked to shuffle through a process that was made by the TDSB.
“This has turned into a fiasco,” Harrow said.
Trustees were looking at four staff recommendations aimed at improving black students’ success, including the creation of the alternative school to open in September 2009, along with Africentric pilot programs at three existing schools.
The recommendations would cost $820,000.
“You don’t know what we want or perhaps you don’t know what is right, but we know what is best,” Winston LaRose, of the Jane-Finch Concerned Citizens Organization, told trustees.
Vickie McPhee of the group Rights Watch argued there should be a black-focused school in each of Toronto’s 22 ridings. “This is not about segregation. Our children are segregated in the public education system,” she said. “Our children are disengaged. They’re handcuffed.”
Comments
“We recognize that opening one school is not going to solve the problem, but we are committed to closing the achievement gap,” Christopher Usih”
So he’s attempting to defy reality. I wish him luck; it isn’t going to change.
“I think we have in principle divided our system by the colour of one’s skin … however, now that we’ve made a decision we can’t allow this to fail.”
So now there’s a firm consensus that race exists, though this skin business gets old after a while. The implication is much broader.
“Trustees were looking at four staff recommendations aimed at improving black students’ succes”
Let’s assume the teachers will be White.
“This is not about segregation. Our children are segregated in the public education system,” she said. “Our children are disengaged. They’re handcuffed.”
Speaking of defeatism. Tell them they’re slaves while your at it, genius. What a way to “instill confidence,” as if they lacked that characteristic in the first place.
Posted by Guillaume at 4:24 PM on January 30
*The proposal was not for a black-focused school with only black students, teachers and curriculum, Harrow said.*
We’ve seen this time, and time again:
*It’s called the U.S. inner-city public school system*.
Mark my words, any white children forced to attend will either be expelled for misdeamenours or will suffer heavily at the hands of their “brothers of colour”.
Give it 1, 2, 5 years tops, and this school will make the news again - not in the way the LibMed wants, though.
Posted by Obscuratus at 4:30 PM on January 30
If it’s about “self-determination” for them, why can’t it be that way for us?
Also, what will be so different about the “Afrocentric” pedagogy in the “black” school that isn’t already taught in the “mainstream” schools which I’m sure are left-wing? The only difference is that in the “mainstream” schools, whites will learn Afrocentric ideas. In the “black” school, blacks will learn Afrocentric ideas.
Posted by St. Louis CofCC Blogmeister at 5:00 PM on January 30
I am confused. If whites proposed this, what would have happened?
If whites had said, let us REMOVE whites from one school so the blacks could learn in white-free peace, what would have happened?
If any white, anywhere in Canada, had made this suggestion, what would have happned?
They just proved Jared Taylor’s speech given last year IN Canada. Diversity & Multiculturalism is NOT so great, huh?
I think Mr. Taylor should have sent a “friend of the court” letter agreeing to this Blacks only school and then stood back and watched the horror and panic on the faces of the pro-black-only school. What a great sight that would have been.
Perhaps AMREN can do a cover story on this no-diversity diversity school and send complimentary copies to the entire school board.
Can AMREN keep us posted on this event? There is more to come and we all know that.
Posted by LOGIC at 5:08 PM on January 30
And the logical next step is for whites and Asians only schools? What a crazy world we live in!
Posted by Brian Deller at 6:08 PM on January 30
We whites should support black only schools.That way it makes it harder for them to blame us for their failures, it moves a lot of low class black children away from white kids, and most importantly, it strengthens our argument for white only schools that are publicly funded.Whites sheepeshly pay taxes to support schools that are afro-centric while we pay for private schools so our kids dont have to be victimized by black thug students.
Posted by Peejay in Frisco at 6:14 PM on January 30
‘bold decision’, ‘self-determination’, ‘divisiveness’,
‘courageous’, ‘closing the achievement gap’…I like the idea…When is it the whites’ turn?
When will someone ‘look at the issues that are affecting’ the white community?
This is a school specifically ‘designed for children to be nurtured and supported in success’. At first, I commented that I thought that was the original idea of public education. But, on second thought; it’s about learning, not necessarily always a success. You learn to try, to reason, to come up with the best answer/solution. It’s not always a success; that’s real life.
The school is ‘black-focused’, not for blacks only. It would only be a matter of time before they blamed the few whites that went there for any of their problems.
Posted by GAonMYmind at 6:45 PM on January 30
Of course this is all tantamount to putting a finger in the dike. It might make blacks feel better about themselves (and they don’t lack in self-esteem as it is), but in the end, it will do nothing to raise their school scores, which cannot be separated from their (lowest among all races) IQs. That’s PC anathema to say, but even the most self-deluded liberal knows this in their heart. Black failure in academics is ubiquitous and intransigent, and all the nutty leftist solutions to narrow the white/black gap have predictably failed. The very real genetic differences in native intelligence among the races simply can’t be undone by any amount of social engineering.
That said, I applaud and encourage separate schools for blacks. Their schools, and those of whites will be more harmonious because of the separation. As we know, diversity as a strength is a one way street, to the extent that proximity to whites might benefit blacks at school. For whites, standards of academia and decorum will decline toward the lowest common denominator when the groups are mixed.
Posted by Kent at 6:55 PM on January 30
Divide the kids by race. Both races want this so do it.
Posted by the Soviet Republic of New Jersey at 7:00 PM on January 30
Angela Wilson, a community member who brought the idea forward, added: “It’s a bittersweet thing because it should have happened a long time ago and it shouldn’t have brought all this pain back to our black community.”
Amazing, isn’t it? Wilson still has something to gripe about and whine over their alledged “pain” to the “black community” even after getting her own way in this “black school” debate. No gratitude towards the taxpayers who will now have to fund this soon-to-be disastrous boondoggle…just a haughty sense of entitlement emanating from this woman.
I’m sure if we look into her background, we’ll likely find a black immigrant mother from a Caribbean country who is/was generously supported by our welfare payments.
Speaking of “pain”, I’ll let the reader use their own imagination where that might be more accurately placed.
Posted by at 7:12 PM on January 30
The segregationist were right after all. No one involved is going to say what they all know to be true.
Here in Buffalo, they’re closing black charter schools left and right because of, what else, poor performance. All this proves is that blacks can’t be educated; either with whites or with other blacks. Anything to do with blacks is pointless.
What comes after this experiment fails is anyone’s guess…
Posted by sbuffalonative at 7:27 PM on January 30
“Seeing themselves [black students] in the curriculum, in their instructors is what’s needed,” Mr. Kempf said. But Courtney Betty, a Toronto lawyer, argued that creating such a school would be failing students.“We cannot look at knee-jerk, Band-Aid solutions any longer,” Mr. Betty said.
All over the West, where blacks have migrated, two things are very common: An increase in crime and an inability to learn. And the resulting chaos causes much speculation as to just what kinds of measures can be enacted that will solve both problems.
Black inundation turns once relatively peaceful societies into ones of great turmoil in which there seems to be no solution, and the situations everywhere get worse, not better, no matter what kind of remedies are attempted. Yet not one politician nor academic anywhere has the courage to openly admit that the only solution is black expulsion and that blacks have no business in a first world country trying to keep up with people of other races, academically and morally, because it is, quite simply, just beyond their abilities.
Nothing is going to change that.
Posted by w.r. at 7:49 PM on January 30
These poor people have no idea of what they want from one minute to the next. When things don’t work out in the black school, they’ll scream bloody murder until their kids are put back into integrated schools.
They’re just like children.
Tom Iron…
Posted by Tom Iron... at 8:17 PM on January 30
Haven’t the Canadians learned anything from us yet???? They are in for more trouble than they can handle…but oh well…sometimes people have to learn the hard way…eh??
Posted by lydia at 8:37 PM on January 30
I’d no problem if:
1. Whites could do the same thing openly
2. These same blacks wouldn’t whine and beg to go to our schools, work with us, and go after our women.
Posted by at 8:47 PM on January 30
Where are they proposing to build this school? Wouldn’t Africa be a good place? I mean, they want it to be afro-centric right?
Posted by Josh at 12:51 AM on January 31
I was planning on proposing a Euro-centric school as a matter of self-determination in my local school district. Want to guess what my chances of getting school board approval are?
Posted by at 1:24 AM on January 31
They want to be seperate with full funding by the white race. Louis Farakhan wants a black country inside the borders of the U.S. which will be fully funded and supported by the whites for at least the first fifty years.There will be no whites allowed to live there and yet the blacks that choose to live among the whites will continue to receive all the benefits of thier black status.
Continued appeasement doesn’t work; the more you give in the more they demand.
Posted by at 6:43 AM on January 31
Funny, I’ve heard that word “self-determination” before. In South Africa it was used interchangeably with the word “Apartheid”. The more things change…
Posted by at 7:04 AM on January 31
“This is a school where all children could come in and be nurtured and supported into success,” Harrow said angrily. “No one ever said little white children couldn’t come.”
Little white children may be ALLOWED to attend — but none will. Unless, of course, their little white parents are insane.
And then there’s still the matter of exactly WHAT will be taught in an “Afrocentric” school? The historian AJP Taylor once got in trouble for noting that “Africa is the only continent that has produced no history.” No history = no History Dept.
Considering that NOWHERE in Africa did blacks ever developed a written language, metallurgy, or even THE WHEEL (!), that doesn’t leave a whole lot for teachers to teach about, does it? I mean, how do you get an entire K-12 curriculum out of GW Carver and his peanut recipes?
The whole exercise is nothing but racial pandering to guilt-tripping blacks who can’t learn, by guilt-ridden whites who can’t say no. It is tantamount to an admission of black intellectual inferiority. And also a clear case of “Don’t raise the bridge, lower the water!”
Posted by The Incredible Shrinking White Man at 9:17 AM on January 31
This school is going to be ‘black focused’?? Every school and university I’ve attended has already been ‘black focused’. I’d hate to see what this school is like.
Posted by at 10:12 AM on January 31
Haven’t the Canadians learned anything from us yet???? They are in for more trouble than they can handle…but oh well…sometimes people have to learn the hard way…eh??
Posted by lydia at 8:37 PM on January 30
Lydia,
Canadians have not learned or are choosing to ignore what has happened in the US. This is all about a bunch of wacky school leaders who have bought into this very bad idea. The only reason Blacks are creating their own schools is so they can have a dumbed down curriculum that blacks can handle. This is defacto segregation completely endorsed by the Black community as a good thing. Of course, they claim, anyone can attend, but what parent would send a kid there knowing full well the school will not get the grades/education background to get into the better universities.
Posted by Citizen: Planet_Earth at 10:19 AM on January 31
This is going to wind up costing a lot more than $ 820,000 Canadian. Just like the Canadian gun registry scheme of a few years ago- its supporters promised it would only cost $ 1 million Canadian. It has cost some $ 2 BILLION Canadian, with no end in sight, and they still can’t get it to work right.
Posted by Soprano Fan at 4:22 PM on January 31
I’d no problem if:
1. Whites could do the same thing openly
2. These same blacks wouldn’t whine and beg to go to our schools, work with us, and go after our women.
Posted by at 8:47 PM on January 30
No my friend, your women go after their men. Thats the problem.
Posted by at 5:44 PM on January 31
Black focused schools, a waste of tax payers money because it does not address a root cause of black student failure. Success in school starts at home. Questions that need to be asked about black students who do drop out are: These also apply to all races in schools.
Does That black student who does drop out, come from a two parent family?
Very often those students who do drop out come from a single parent family, usually headed by a hard working mother, in many instances holding two or more jobs, leaving that child without a structure and discipline, which evolves into a lack of respect for authority which creates problems for the mother and the schools which leads to that child skipping school and eventually dropping out as soon as the law allows him or her to do so.
Has that black student who has dropped out of school been passed along through the education system?
For example even though he does not have the skills to move to the next grade because some politically correct “educator” believes in the doctrine, “no child left behind” with the net result is that a few years later in school that child is so far behind other students in basic reading, writing and Math skills that at 16 years of age he is so frustrated at his lack of success in school he sees no reason to attend school and thus drops out.
Black only schools is segregation, short and simple.
Posted by Lew at 11:22 PM on February 1
I could fully support segregration if it was applied equally across the board. Recent history (the last fifty years) has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the blacks and other groups will defend thier right to segegrate (at our expense) while denying the white race the same right. They have demanded the right to move freely among us and even go to the head of the line. Constantly recieving preferential treatment; all the while laughing in our face and holding us in sheer contempt.
Anyone that thinks they are going to give that up is living in a fantasy land.
I sincerely believe that if intergalactic travel was possible the white race would abandon Earth by the millions. Within the span of 2 generations blacks would demand to go and have everything given to them on a silver platter.
The white race will have to survive a holucaust that will make what Nazi Germany did look like a picnic by comparison before it will wake up and realise that the other races hate us with a passionate hate like none the world has ever seen before.
Just as Hitler called for the total extermination of the Jews, radical Hispanic and Black leaders are calling for the elimination of the white race.
Posted by at 8:06 PM on February 2
“This is a school where all children could come in and be nurtured and supported into success,” Harrow said angrily. “No one ever said little white children couldn’t come.”
most sane-thinking whites don’t want to be in predominately black schools and this irritates blacks. They know they only reason they can date/marry whites or are in positions of power is because of force. Wouldn’t it irritate you if you knew most everyone didn’t want to be around you and the only way they would was through force and intimidation?
Posted by at 12:15 AM on February 4
I am looking forward to this project going down in a hail of bullets and teen pregnancy. This experiment will prove once and for all that whitey is NOT to blame for the turmoil in the black community.
Posted by Jason at 9:27 AM on February 11