Waking Up To School Violence

Critical Theory Based Policies are the Main Cause of School Violence

Photo by Shubham Sharan on Unsplash

By Igor Stravinski 

As school violence continues to escalate in Ontario High Schools, the woke steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the role of their activism in amplifying it. Proof of this denial arrived in print in the Toronto Star on Sunday morning November 27th with a full-page headline blasting “the Kids are Not Alright”.  

The Star is the legacy media mouthpiece of the woke and has uncritically embraced and supported critical theory and “anti-racism” as defined by author Ibram X. Kendi and Robin  DiAngelo (and their ilk). Having accepted, hook, line and sinker, this ideology that attributes any observed group difference in outcomes between white and black people to “systemic racism” (unless black people come out ahead, in which case the data is ignored), the Star has no choice but to double down when evidence to the contrary appears.  

In the article, which has the online header “‘They’re nervous as hell’: Gun deaths highlight simmering traumas inside Toronto schools”, a range of reasons for the increased violence are suggested along with possible remedies. 

Reason: social media amplifying violent situations. Remedy: a greater focus on mental health supports.

Reason: lack of (unspecified) resources for students. Remedy: mentorship programs; in-school space for kids to talk through problems; money to hire “local leaders.”

Reason: lack of trust in school staff by students. Remedy: bring in community people for the kids to talk to.

Reason: unwillingness by school administration to invite community groups to get directly involved. Remedy: allow self-identified community leaders in.

Reason: reactionary tactics by school administrators. Remedy: preventative measures, such as “including leadership in schools that have lived experience in the communities in which those schools are located.”

Reason: social media conflicts spread out into the real world and become physically violent. Remedy: no specific remedy suggested.

As you can see, the list of proposed remedies has a common theme- getting “community leaders” directly involved with running the schools. There are many reasons why someone might be uncomfortable with that. Who are these people, exactly, and are their objectives aligned with the school board (which is answerable to the community through the democratic process)? People have reason to be concerned. One of the black advocacy groups is called “Stolen from Africa”, a clear sign that they promote the view that black people are victims of oppression in a white supremacist society. This is right out of Critical Theory and is not a view with which most Canadians agree.  

But the real concern is the total lack of any mention, whatsoever, that the changes in the schools that have been taking place over the last couple of years as a result of “anti-racism” initiatives could possibly be playing any kind of role in the spike in school violence. 

It has been known for many years that black youth (especially boys) were underachieving academically in Ontario High Schools and that those same black youth were being disciplined more frequently for misbehaviour- from minor offenses like skipping classes to serious issues which involved police. School administrators and teachers were puzzled by this pattern. Few ever believed that there was anything inherently different about black boys compared to other boys. In fact, the scientific consensus has long been that race is an artificial social construct.  

So, if it was not any kind of inherent propensity to misbehaviour and violence, then what was it?  Two schools of thought emerged: 

1) The socio-economic hypothesis: it was suggested that, on average, black youth were more often subjected to the kind of socio-economic conditions (poverty, broken families, lack of positive role models, lack of academic support at home, low value placed on formal education in the community etc.) that tend to lead to poor school performance and behaviour.  

2) The systemic racism hypothesis: According to this way of thinking, black youth are often not fully engaged in learning because the school system is Eurocentric/white supremacist. The lessons do not reflect the lived experiences and cultural traditions of black people. Teachers and school administrators were doling out discipline when black kids were simply “learning while black” in their own cultural way- a way of learning and being which, the mostly white teachers did not understand or appreciate.  

Hypothesis 2 won the day. It was convenient for all concerned to just blame the schools. And once the provincial government realized that it could placate the activists without increasing (actually while decreasing) education budgets, it was all-in. Now you might ask any number of questions about this hypothesis, such as, “if schools are systemically racist, why are Asian kids doing better than whites?”. But no one asked any such questions, and over the last few years, millions have been spent in efforts to combat “systemic racism”. Boards have fired any administrators who questioned the hypothesis. “Anti-racism” has become the focus of virtually all school initiatives. As I have written previously, this has had devastating impacts on student learning (de-streaming being the most obvious example) and teacher professional learning and morale.  

A key plank in the anti-racism strategy has been to align with Black Lives Matter and other black advocacy groups in calls to reduce (or even eliminate!) policing. The police have been viewed as a cause of problems for black people, and as such have been vilified. So the School Resource Officer programs, which saw police interacting with kids in non-disciplinary situations, was scrapped. 

Then, just about every disciplinary tool teachers and school administrators had (and there weren’t many to start with) was taken away, based on the belief that there was no problem with student behaviour, per se, but rather that behavioural expectations by teachers and school administrators were “racist” or “colonial”. So if a kid tells a teacher to “fuck off”, for example, the principal might ask the teacher “what did you do to trigger him?”, and then have a chat with the kid about why he was having such a bad day (no discipline). 

With all expectations of respectful and appropriate behaviour jettisoned, is it any wonder that levels of bad behaviour began to increase? The only thing controlling student behaviour was the students themselves (and these are teens we’re talking about!) and their parents. If the parents are not invested in the student’s education, you have nothing on them as a school administrator or especially as a teacher. 

School administrators were read the riot act and told not to discipline kids by traditional means (detentions, in-school suspensions, suspensions, expulsions) since this was racist/colonial but were not provided with any effective alternatives. The progressive discipline model was all but abandoned. 

As a result of all this, teachers and school administrators are no longer respected by many students. The kids know there will not be any consequences for their behaviour. Bad behaviors escalate. It’s the wild west. 

To be fair, there is certainly some merit to some of the remedies suggested in the Star article. But most people would agree there have to be proportionate consequences for actions. Telling  kids nothing is their fault, they are victims, and that they cannot expect to get ahead based on hard work or their accomplishments because the system is rigged against them, creates a  feeling of helplessness and an attitude that trying hard in school and self discipline are  pointless.  

Yes we need more mental health supports and schools need to listen to people in the community. Positive reinforcement is great, but when was the last time a cop stopped you and handed you a cheque for not speeding? In the real world, we all follow the rules because we fear the consequences if we don’t. Kids are not learning that lesson, which is a big part of the problems we are seeing in the schools right now.  

Woke education policies have failed the students of Ontario in every conceivable way. There is far less academic learning, and the basic social tools, attitudes, and behaviours needed to exist successfully in Canadian society have been ditched in the name of anti-racism and “decolonizing”.  

People concerned about school safety will need to take the system back form the cult of Critical Theory. As long as the “anti-racist” and “decolonizing” ideologues are running the show, things will only get worse.

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Thanks for reading. Igor Stravinsky is an anonymous Canadian high school teacher. For more of his writing - Critical Injustice: “Equity” continues to breed inequality in the Peel District School Board