WATERLOO REGION DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD APOLOGIZES FOR THIRTY YEARS OF HARMFUL BEHAVIOUR

Well I didn't see this coming. I have long known that various senior staff at the WRDSB abused their positions and authority in a number of different ways. This particular issue was raised over the last couple of years after the Black Lives Matter movement began. Several local activists have taken both the Region of Waterloo and the local police to task over their alleged racist behaviour. Furthermore they made it clear that the regular Police presence in schools was not the benign, allegedly win-win scenario that it had long been depicted as. Certain racial minorities felt that they and their behaviour was being targeted or at least put under a microscope simply because of their race and they felt this was demeaning and disrespectful. .................................................................................................................... Today's Waterloo Region Record has an article written by Brent Davis which is titled "School Board apologizes for harms caused by policing program". In June 2020 the school board suspended the policing program and advised that how and when police were being used in schools was creating "...a sense of fear, increased anxiety and vulnerability for some, and especially Black, Indigenous and racialized students". The school board then voted last month to end the program entirely. Further they later issued the following statement on their website: "The fact that any student felt this way is not acceptable. We apologize, unreservedly, to the students and communities who have been harmed." .............................................................................................................................. Wow, I am impressed. Now I wonder if they have any interest in apologizing for their "Pass the Trash" policies, hopefully of the past, wherin bad teachers were not disciplined but simply transferred to different schools to be inflicted upon students and parents there. This unfortunately included child molesters as determined in the Ron Archer case which resulted in his doing jail time for his illegal activities both on and off school property.