Black students in Hamilton detail experiences with racism, make 11 recommendations for change

Black students have assembled a report detailing their experience in Hamilton and made 11 recommendations they say must be urgently adopted by local boards and the province to address racism and concerns about safety in schools.

The document titled Community Safety and Well-Being Action Plan for Black Youth in Hamilton Schools is the result of eight Zoom sessions and five surveys that collected the input of 159 students, parents and caregivers.

"I think it's pretty important because a lot of people have experienced racism and all these different things in school and they don't have supports," said Mikhail Jama.

The 15-year-old is a Grade 10 student at Westmount Secondary School.

He said his time at school has included "racist jokes," adding the report is an important tool school boards can use to help students like himself.

Fifty-two students took part in Zoom sessions and 90 responded to surveys, along with 17 caregivers.

The report found just over 95 per cent of students with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) who participated said they'd experienced racism and roughly 90 per cent felt unsafe in schools.

For the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, those numbers were 76 per cent and 60 per cent respectively.

"Black students are saying that, obviously, things aren't OK in their schools and something needs to be done," said Layla El-Dakhakhni, a member of Hamilton Students for Justice (HS4J).

The group helped put together the report, along with the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI).

"Black students are making this very earnest effort to address things in their schools, it's not just happening and people are being quiet about it, and schools boards are not responding to that in a way that's effective," El-Dakhakhni said.

The report makes the following 11 recommendations:

The organizations are calling for some of the recommendations to be applied immediately, with others to be in place by the beginning of the 2022 school year or the winter semester in 2023.

Some boards have already taken some of the recommended steps, including the HWDSB which last year voted to terminate the liaison program that put police officers in schools.