Hamilton public school trustees demand more details on suspensions
Hamilton public school trustees want more details on student suspensions and expulsions to see if identifying factors like race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, special needs and poverty may be playing a role in who is being disciplined.
A motion passed unanimously at the April 3 board meeting directs staff to redraft a recent report on 2021-22 suspensions and expulsions by breaking down data by grade, special education status, gender, and enrolment at nonpriority and high-priority schools.
It also asks the data to be compared with the results of a voluntary student census released last year that probed nine self-identifying factors, including race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, Indigenous identity and country of birth.
The current report provides nearly none of those details, only noting that 233 of 3,902 suspensions in 2021-22 were issued to students identified as exceptional."
It only offers us very shadow depictions of some of what is occurring in our schools," said trustee Sabreina Dahab, whose motion called for more detailed data to align with practices at several other boards, including in Toronto and Ottawa.
She said evidence compiled by the Ontario Human Rights Commission shows that discipline policies disproportionately affect particular communities" and her own conversations with dozens of families back that up.
There is an urgency to address this because of historically how these are impacting people in our communities in our schools," Dahab said.
We're losing valuable time to deal (with) and address the root of what is happening to some of the most marginalized students."
Education director Sheryl Robinson Petrazzini said staff will work to provide much of the data by a June deadline set by Dahab's motion, but likely can't do so on identities probed by the student census.
She said she's concerned disclosing the latter will undermine efforts to work with community groups to build trust in the census, which only had a 48 per cent response rate, by ensuring the data's release doesn't create a potentially harmful narrative."
Petrazzini said the census-related suspension statistics will likely be ready by the fall, including on gender breakdowns included in annual reports prior to 2017, which listed student suspensions in male, female, elementary and secondary categories.
The board's understanding of gender has moved forward since then and we want to be responsive to that," she said.
Trustee Todd White, who seconded Dahab's motion, said gender is an important category to understand because reports prior to 2017 showed males were suspended far more often than females.
I appreciate that in the past number of years gender and the definition of gender have evolved, but by losing that data there's still a very telling picture to be told with regards to how gender does affect suspensions and expulsions," he said.
Prior to the motion, trustees heard from three public delegations calling for more transparency on the identities of students being suspended and expelled.
Eisham Karim said as a parent of three boys and a leader in the Muslim community he's heard many stories about the board's oppressive discipline policies."
Those policies ignore language issues, he said, recounting the experience of an immigrant boy" who wasn't provided translation at a suspension meeting and then sent home with a letter his family couldn't understand.
Karim said the boy's father said his son no longer wants to go to school.
Unfortunately, this is not just an isolated incident but rather a common experience among hundreds of immigrant families," he said, adding many parents are fearful of dealing with teachers.
It's alarming that the families most affected by the lack of transparency are not being consulted because they are too afraid to engage with the system."