Grade 7 student repeatedly taunted with racial slurs at Ontario school, parents say

WARNING: This story deals with racially sensitive subject matter and contains offensive language.

The parents of a Grade 7 student who attends a Catholic school in Simcoe County say a group of mostly white students has repeatedly targeted their daughter with racist verbal abuse since she transferred there from a public school and that the school administration has been slow to act.

Phoebe Fyffe and Jason McDonald said their 12-year-old daughter, who is Black, has either overheard the N-word being used or been called it herself multiple times by seven boys who are part of the same group of friends at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School in Innisfil, Ont., roughly 100 kilometres north of Toronto.

The bullying has taken place since September both inside the classroom and on the school bus where either teachers or bus drivers have been present, they say.

The verbal abuse escalated last week, Fyffe said, when one of the boys told her daughter that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the oldest white supremacist hate organization in the United States responsible for killing countless Black people.

CBC News is not naming the girl to protect her privacy.

Fyffe said the abuse has continued after she reported many of the encounters as they occurred to both the school and officials at the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board (SMCDSB) — and even after some of the boys had been spoken to and punished with suspensions.

"She's scared," Fyffe said of her daughter in an exclusive interview with CBC News. "She asked me, if they attack her, what should she do? ... She's not comfortable in her classroom."

Christine Monteiro-Almeida, superintendent for the SMCDSB's Barrie South East region, confirmed to CBC News that the school is aware of three instances of racial slurs being used, as well as the KKK incident.

Monteiro-Almeida said the school had followed the board's code of conduct and safe schools protocols in response to the complaints, taking measures ranging from counselling sessions, speaking to students and their parents and handing out suspensions. She didn't provide specifics.

The board also informed and police and hired an investigator. But before taking those steps, the SMCDSB brought in a "trained restorative practices practitioner" to work with students and staff, and a letter was also sent to the entire school community on Oct. 21 informing them of the cases and reminding parents of behavioural expectations for students.

"Although we have put many different things in place to try to address this situation, it's still ongoing and it hasn't been resolved," Monteiro-Almeida said.

"As a result, we are bringing in a third-party investigator, and we will take the suggestions of this third-party investigator very seriously to ensure that this student feels safe, welcomed and has a sense of belonging at her school."

Monteiro-Almeida said the third-party investigator has a mandate to find out what happened and to make recommendations going forward.