Fredericton principal, graduate fight systemic racism at N.B.'s largest high school

Nearly two months after many grad students dressed up as "gangsters" for picture day at Fredericton High School, work is underway to make lasting changes at the province's largest high school.

In September, photos of a group of more than 60 students in white tank tops, overalls, thick gold chains and bandanas were condemned as "culturally inappropriate" by principal Stephanie Underhill Tomilson, and promises were made to do more to educate students.

At the time, she heard from upset students and families who said the photos were racist, while others said Underhill Tomilson was making "too big of a deal out of this" and told her "there's nothing wrong with what their child wore to school." 

"There's no sugar coating those photos," Underhill Tomilson said in the days after the photos surfaced. "'I didn't mean it,' only lasts for so long. At some point we've got to change the narrative, and that's where that focus is going to go moving forward."

Since then, the school has created a diversity, equity and inclusion committee, made up of 12 teachers and 12 students from "very diverse" backgrounds.

Underhill Tomilson says 300 of the approximately 2,100 students at her school are recent newcomers and many wanted to share their experiences as part of the committee.

The group was supposed to meet for a full day on Oct. 29, with learning in the morning and planning in the afternoon, but the meeting was postponed when the CUPE strike closed schools across New Brunswick.

"I think it's really important that we hear those voices from the students," Underhill Tomilson said. "I understand where I stand in my privilege. I understand that I still have to unlearn and learn some new things, but [I am] always hopeful."

In September, Savannah Thomas sent an email to Underhill Tomilson, offering to visit the school to share her experiences of racism while she was a student there.

The 21-year-old university student graduated from Fredericton High and wants to go back to talk with members of the graduating class about what it is like to feel marginalized and unsafe.

The principal turned her down, saying for now she has decided to focus on hearing from current students, rather than going to alumni — a disappointing response for Thomas.

"I've had multiple different former students who are Black reach out to me and share their own experiences and talk about how much they appreciate the work that I'm doing and how it needs to be discussed," Thomas said of her advocacy on social media.

She said much of the reaction to posts she made on social media about the picture day incident was positive, but she was upset and surprised by the reaction from a teacher at Fredericton High School.

In her Facebook post, Thomas tagged the school and the student council Facebook pages in an effort to reach as large an audience as possible, but one teacher wrote to her saying students were being "unfairly targeted."