Indigenous student sent home with 'offensive' worksheet, prompting audit at Niagara school
CBC
Warning: This story contains the image in question.
A Niagara-area school is auditing the materials of a teacher who's facing undisclosed "disciplinary action" after a student was sent home with a worksheet depicting two cartoon characters in stereotypical Indigenous clothing, including feathered headbands.
Tracee Smith, who lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont., was shocked when her four-year-old son Ekkian Christmas came home from junior kindergarten with the worksheet entitled "Two little Indians are eating ice cream." It asked students to "colour the scoops that have an 'I' or 'i' on it."
"I couldn't believe that I was reading it. I went from being shocked, to upset, to really disappointed, all very quickly," said Smith, a member of the Missanabie Cree First Nation in northern Ontario.
She said other children in the class also were given the worksheet.
Smith's son started at St. Davids Public School three weeks ago. She said he was unaware, because of his age, that the worksheet was offensive, but his older sister, who is in Grade 1, understood it was.
"We still have teachers using this material and not realizing how hurtful it can be," Smith said.
"You'll hear the term 'Indian' used in very racist, hurtful ways from mostly non-Indigenous people, from the past."
St. Davids Public School principal Carl Glauser sent an email to parents after Smith made the school and the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN) aware of the worksheet.
"We are sincerely sorry to the students, families and entire school community that this offensive material was distributed," Glauser said in the email.
Smith said the worksheet hit close to home, not just because she and her husband are Indigenous, but because Smith also works in Indigenous education.
She is the founder and chief executive officer of Outside Looking In, an educational program that brings Indigenous and non-Indigenous students together to learn about each other, and offers high school credits to Indigenous students through their dance program.
"I work with curriculum, and teachers and principals all the time," Smith said.
"Twenty-five kids that I know of got that worksheet. You would just think that we would have gotten past this already."