Racist bullying in Vancouver BC high school and the poor administrative response

    I recently read a news article about a bullying incident at a Vancouver school that centered around racist death threats via social media. The article highlights the essential need for increased education on anti-racism and digital technology for school communities. The lack of preparation and appropriate response from the school reflects the systemic structural racism embedded in Canadian culture. The lack of adequate response from the school administration after a student posted death threats with racial slurs to social media is extremely upsetting for me as future educator. When the affected student told the principal and school police liaison officer she did not feel safe she was told “Well, you’re going to have to deal with it”[1]. This terrible administrative approach is shocking; the article also reveals how the affected student had the additional emotional labour of helping the administration deal with the situation. She was pulled out of class regularly for consultation, negatively affecting her grades and well-being. Sadly, this incident was not isolated as students at the same school wore KKK costumes at Halloween, used racial slurs and continued bullying black students via social media after the incident.

            This incident is indicative of how there must be increased multiliteracies for all teachers and students. Awareness about the history of racism in Canada is essential for dismantling continuing structural racism. Digital literacy must be cultivated so that individuals can interact with social media to help destroy racism, bullying and emotional violence. This article also reflects how the First People’s Principles of Learning must be strongly integrated into educational environments. If educators and students truly embraced how “learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, ancestors, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors”[2] and that “learning involves recognizing the consequences of one’s actions”[3] this incident may not have happened and would have been handled differently.

           Almost a year later a district anti-racism mentor has been reinstated in Vancouver because of grassroots community pressure. However, it should not be up to the affected groups to take anti-racist action, there must be initiative from privileged settler communities that recognize their responsibility to be allies. Other perspectives to consider in this story would be how this incident would have been treated if the student had not been from a white middle-upper class background? How is bullying dealt with when the bully is a person of colour, new immigrant or from a marginalized community? An intersectional analysis of ethnicity, class and gender must be utilized when we cultivate solutions for dealing with bullying and violence. I have attached anti-racist teaching resources and lesson plans so our teaching community has tools to help us integrate anti-racist education into our classrooms.