Investigation into police being called on four-year-old Black boy by the Waterloo Catholic District School Board

BY PAUL JUNOR

As the Ontario Ministry of Education continues its work on developing strategies to tackle systemic racism, especially anti-Black racism in Ontario schools, another disturbing incident has come to light. It was reported on Wednesday, February 23^rd, 2022, that the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) called the police on a four-year-old.

The Waterloo Regional Police Services verified that officers were called to a Catholic elementary school on November 29^th, 2021, due to a “crisis” situation in which a student was acting in a manner that was deemed violent. The officers tried to de-escalate the student’s actions to no avail and eventually family members were informed and the student was taken home.

This incident has raised many questions and provoked widespread community reaction from Black advocacy groups, concerned community organizations, and members of the Black community in Waterloo. There is confusion about the details of what transpired during that incident. Fidella Ulkuge, the president of the group Nigerians in the region of Waterloo stated “The school board has failed a four-year-old by criminalizing a child. Nothing justified what the school board did to that child.”

The non-profit advocacy group, Parents of Black Children (PoBC) has decided to take on this case as a part of its work against systemic racism. Charline Grant attended a meeting on February 23^rd, 2022 along with representatives from the Early Childhood Development Initiative to seek answers from the WCDSB. She expressed serious reservations about the way that Black Children have been disproportionately impacted by systemic racist actions directed against typical childish behaviours. She states, “It’s the criminalization of our Black boys and children. Our children are not given the freedom to be kids.”

Laura Mae Lindo, MPP of Kitchener Centre echoed Charline’s sentiments. She states, “The normalcy with which policies are used to discipline literally traumatize Black children is far too common.” MPP Lindo has been consistently calling on the provincial government to enact legislation to combat racism in Ontario’s schools. PoBC indicated on its Facebook that, “WCDSB has emotionally, mentally and physically traumatized a four-year-old Black child on multiple occasions.”

PoBC in collaboration with @ pobcadvocate and @ecdi-canada pushed for accountability and justice from the WCDSB and called on the Ontario Human Rights Commission to launch a full-scale inquiry. Loretta Nollen, the Director of Education for WCDSB denied that there is a racism problem at the school. She states, “I would take umbrage to the allegation that there is systemic racism in our board.” PoBC is critical of the director’s response because it represents a denial of the reality of racism in the schools in the Waterloo region.

Ontario Education Minister, Stephen Leece in response to letters from the PoBC responded, “Under no scenario should police be called to remove a four-year-old student from a school in the province.”

He indicated that there would be a full third-party investigation of the WCDSB.