Black parents ask Ottawa public schools to collect race data

A group of parents from Ottawa's black community are calling onthe Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to collect race-based data so they can fight discriminationin the education system.

Richard Sharpe said his 16-year-old son has faced undue discrimination at school.

"We found that he was being racially profiled. We found that he was being disproportionately penalized for small things," Sharpe said.

He and his wife were concerned race was a factor when their son was suspended for a day last year "for questioning an administrator as to whyhim and other black and brown students were being asked to shuffle along and remove their headbands while they were chatting in the hallway," Sharpe told CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning Wednesday.

He saidit makes a climate where children like his don't feel safe or trust the administrators and often feel disengagedfrom the educational system.

Demand for data

Sharpe said other parents of children of colour have had similar experiences.

"Our children are being treated differently in terms of being suspended more, expelled more and being streamed into programs that are not academic," he said.

"I think that systems have been designed over many generations to[discriminate against black students]. I think there are good people in the system, there are good teachers and administrators, but I think the tools they have at their disposal are sort of outdated."

Sharpe's family tried to get data from theOCDSBabout how often black students are suspended or expelled and why but were told it didn't exist.

He said data collected at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), showedalmost half of male students expelled from schools were black.

He wants the OCDSBto collect similar data.

"The hope isthat we will be able to use the data to understand what'shappening with the experience of black children in the school system, so that we can improve the [graduation] success rate," he said.

Last September, Ontario's Ministry of Education announced it would be collecting data, including race and ethnicity as part of its equity policy.

It's aimed at "identifying and eliminatingdiscriminatory practices, systemic barriers and bias from schools and classrooms to support the potential for all students to succeed."

Collection to start in coming year

At a meeting of OCDSBtrustees Tuesday, Sharpe made the case that startingrace-based data collection is urgent and it appearsto him that the board is moving too slowly.

Jennifer Adams, the board's director of education, said the OCDSBis one of four boards ina provincial working group that is currently setting standards on how thedata should becollected.

"Our intention is to go out and collect this [data] next year," Adams said.

The process has been slow because the OCDSBwants to take the results of the provincial discussions toparents and communitygroups to get them ready for the change, and to address things like privacy concerns and setting up IT systems for the data, she added.

Data currently exists on students who are English-language learners, have special needs and are self-identified Indigenous, but parents haven't been asked for other identifications, Adams said.

The new survey will ask parents and students to identify race, religion, gender and sexual orientation.

"We'll gather as much information as we can to really cater our supports and services," she said.

'Discrimination takes place in our organization'

"It's really important," Adams said in an interview with Ottawa Morning Wednesday.

"Every school system is looking to know the most they can about individual students and groups of students do they need extra intervention orextra support?"

Asked about whether school board staff might need intervention,support and resourcesto fightdiscrimination, Adams said"absolutely."

"I think discrimination takes place in our organization," she said.

"I think it takes place across society, and we've been very up front as an organization, saying that where there is systemic discrimination or racismthat we will work with the community to help address that."