The week in dysfunctional woke school boards

And another insane school board detected by our woke radar

Photo by moren hsu on Unsplash

By

James Pew

I am trying to accomplish a number of things through this ongoing series examining dysfunctional Canadian school boards, and new ideas are always emerging. Each day the Woke Watch Canada school board investigation takes new shape as I learn new things and broaden my perspective on the possibilities. One very important message I wish to communicate is that school board trustees, administrators, and directors of education will not be permitted to continue operating in the shadows where for too long they have not been held accountable for their actions. 

We are watching and scrutinizing them. We are analyzing the presentations they give at board meetings, examining their conduct toward parents, exposing their mis-use of procedure and policy to silence dissent (which occurs often from  parents and some rogue “disagreeable” trustees), and documenting their brazen disregard of liberal and democratic norms.

When a school board is colonized, that is, becomes hegemonically woke, it ceases to be a democratic organization. School boards are particularly susceptible to illiberal and undemocratic subversion by political radicals because trustee elections are not on the radar of far too many Canadians. Our education system is in shambles because radicals who disregard the wishes of parents are able to gain entrance to board positions through an electoral process. An electoral process that most Canadians without children in K-12 school don’t even realize they can vote in. 

The radicals are not always successful, but often enough they are. Behind the scenes they organize to ensure that woke candidates run, and are supported on popular and innocuous sounding platforms involving social justice sloganeering. They conspire to bring about a majority of woke trustees. Once the board is hegemonic, they work to bring woke policies into schools at every level, and push out any non-woke trustees who challenge them. During the process, parents who question them are disregarded, bullied, or otherwise silenced.

Woke policies are enshrouded in nice sounding terms. Here are a few of those terms: Social Justice. Equity, Diversity, Inclusion. Social Emotional Learning. Anti-racism. Culturally Responsive and Relevant Pedagogy. Critical Race Theory. Sustainable Development Goals (UN). 

These are but a few to look out for, there are many more, and new ones are always cropping up. But make no mistake, they all hold the central and signature character of wokeism, and as nice as things may appear on the outside, do not be fooled. These are the policies that result in the teaching of anti-science gender nonsense, or age-inappropriate sexualized graphic novels being made available in school libraries,  or students being expelled from school for stating known facts, or boys being welcomed into girls' change rooms, or in a teacher who wears vulgar oversized prosthetic breasts being welcomed into a shop class. 

These radical ideas explain why students aren’t being appropriately disciplined for bad, even violent, behaviour, and why we can’t have police in schools in the form of trained School Resource Officers (SRO) -  in spite of the fact that a district like the Toronto District School Board is experiencing unprecedented levels of  violence at school. This includes shootings and stabbings (some resulting in deaths), and a wide spectrum of violent incidents involving fights with students and teachers. I’ve heard stories of kids being pushed down stairwells or swarmed by mobs of violent bullies.I’ve also heard stories of kids committing suicide at school - but because of laws protecting children and families, many of these things are not reported in the media. There is no way for Canadians to know the full scope of the crisis in Canadian education, and this series aims to remedy that.

Over the last couple of weeks, Woke Watch Canada (WWC) published a number of articles which detailed some of the appalling treatment by woke school board trustees toward concerned parents and non-woke trustees. Because of the generous donations from parents and concerned citizens, I have now taken up this work full time (more on this below).

A review of the week

First, regular WWC contributor, Igor Stravinsky (an anonymous Canadian high school teacher), wrote three essays analyzing the Peel District School Board’s (PDSB) Supervisor’s Final Report - a report that Igor found to be “a historically revisionist and purely political document which attempts to justify devastating ideologically-based actions taken by the board over the last 2-and-a-half years and presents these actions as what was in the best interests of students, parents, and the tax-paying public.” You can read Igor’s three great articles here, here, and here.

On February 2nd, I co-wrote an article about the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB), with concerned parent Elton Robinson. Elton is also an organizer of Parents For Parents Rights, one of many concerned parent groups organizing to hold woke school boards accountable. In our article we examine a disturbing instance at a school board meeting in Windsor where a parent (who has a disability), as she stood at the podium delivering a delegation, was bullied and treated with condescension by trustees. 

On February 8th, another anonymous Canadian teacher, and regular WWC contributor, Not Woke Teacher, wrote an alarming analysis about the woke propaganda posters (under the brand name “unlearn),” displayed in the halls and classrooms of Canadian schools. The mixed and confusing messages of these posters is pure identity politics and has no place in K-12 education.

On February 13th, I wrote an essay about the Ontario Public School Boards Association’s (OPSBA) first post-pandemic Public Education Symposium. This article focused on the obsession with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are not taught objectively. Students are told to be global citizens, and that they must support and promote the UN’s SDGs in order to do so.

On February 15th, I wrote about Josh Alexander, a 16-year old Catholic school student who was “suspended then officially excluded from school. Bullied by other students - told to go ‘kill himself,’ arrested by the police for trying to return to class - effectively ostracized. The same woke movement that inspires bullies across Canadian cancel culture is ultimately responsible for this travesty.”

On February 16th, I wrote about Trustee Linda Stone’s undemocratic removal from the Durham District School Board (DDSB), for daring to bring up the concerns of parents. From that piece:

“If you are a trustee, and you ask about the number of genders teachers are required to know, or about the term “white supremacy,”-  like Trustee Linda Stone did when she explained to an Ontario school board that it was derogatory - you will be accused of denying the “right to exist” of historically marginalized communities.”

I also wrote about Linda Stone’s situation on February 17th in a piece called The term "White Supremacy" is a derogatory reference to Canada's majority population. In this piece I examine the Motte & Bailey aspects of comments made by DDSB Trustee Shailene Panylo during the board meeting where it was undemocratically decided by woke trustees to remove Linda Stone (who is an elected representative) from board meetings for the remainder of the year. From that piece:

“The Motte is what they tell you, but the Bailey is what they really mean. They go to great lengths to hide the fact that they speak (and operate) with hidden meanings and agendas. But they do. And it does not take much to identify exactly how they do it.”

On February 16th, I wrote about the previous night's much anticipated  Halton District School Board (HDSB) meeting. This is the board that made international headlines because it allowed, and continues to allow, a trans-identifying male teacher to wear vulgar oversized prosthetic breasts while teaching shop class to teenagers. Discussed in that piece is a promising parents group called Students First Ontario. Rishi Bandhu is the lawyer for the group. He gave an excellent delegation where he covered in-depth rules around the school council (parents council), explaining to the board that the school council acts as a “check and balance” for the HDSB. The board didn’t seem to accept or appreciate Rishi’s message. In typical fashion, they deferred responsibility for their improper conduct.

Plans for the week

This coming week I will be looking at several other situations involving woke school boards, and what parents are doing, or should start doing, to hold them accountable. One board that has come on my radar is in Chilliwack, B.C. I will have more to say about them this week so stay tuned. In the meantime I will leave you with a video edited together by another parents group called Action4Canada. This video is a montage of the appalling treatment that parents were subjected to by Chair, Willow Reichelt during a February 7th board meeting. 

Below is a description from Action4Canada of the February 7th meeting, and here is a link to the montage video on Rumble (WARNING, it may make you furious):

“At a School Board meeting on Feb. 7, 2023, in Chilliwack BC, the Chair, Willow Reichelt, rudely censored, demeaned and bullied parents, concerned citizens and fellow board members, who were attempting to present information on legitimate matters of great concern. Trustee Reichelt is in breach of her duties according to the Robert’s Rules of Order, the Chilliwack’s SD Policy 130 Trustee Code of Conduct, and the professional standards set for Trustees by the BCSTA. Please contact the School Board and the Superintendent and demand she step down or be removed.”

All of this investigative journalism is made possible by the generous donations of WWC readers. I thank everyone who has contributed so far, either by upgrading to a paid WWC subscription or by donating through our Donor Box which was set up as a Canadian School Board Investigation Fund. The financial support WWC is receiving from donors is a vitally important aspect of this vitally important work. Please do consider making a contribution to Woke Watch Canada (details below).

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Thanks for reading. For more school board analysis from this author, read The Peel District School Board and White Supremacy.

There are now two ways to support Woke Watch Canada through donations:

1) By subscribing to the paid version of the Woke Watch Canada Newsletter for - $5/month or $50/year

2) By donating to the Canadian School Board Investigation fund, which is raising money to expand Woke Watch Canada’s research and investigation into dysfunctional Canadian school boards.