– Page 36 –

To: Christopher McInnis chris.McInnis@dsbn.org
Dated: October 06, 2021

Maybe I can get some clarification as to why our sons friend (Student Name) is getting verbally and physically assaulted by a Caucasian bully named Hunter in his class while in your school?

Yesterday (Student Name) was visiting our home, as he often does, and he was explaining to the applicant that a kid named Hunter again physically and verbally assaulted him while in class, and after reaching out to a teacher for help. AGAIN the only form of reprimand for this bully Hunter was a redundant verbal warning.

It appears this is the beginning of a pattern here within Connaught School and the staff for not taking non-Caucasian children’s requests for help serious enough, despite just having a Youth Prevention Program Day a week ago.

The same program where the grade 7 & 8 students were to learn about bullying and various assault/abuse situations. To acquaint them with the belief that they do have the right to be safe in all situations and help them understand that they can seek support in difficult situations.

(Student Name) is brand new to St. Catharines and your school. He stands a few inches shorter than our son and is significantly lighter and slimmer. And the fact that (Student Name) spoke about this physical and verbal assault from his Caucasian bully Hunter as if it was acceptable was alarming to me.

I hardly doubt this is the impression you want your students, let alone new students, to have about your staff and about coming to your school.

The applicant has asked me if he can defend (Student Name)? And I adamantly explained to him that if he sees ANYONE assaulting R verbally or physically he is more than welcome to get involved and defend his friend or a stranger, as your Youth Prevention Program states.

“To empower students with the knowledge that they can help themselves and others.”

I also explained to our son that there would be absolutely no consequences for standing up to a bully who verbally and physically assaults other students while in school, especially when the school itself is doing nothing about it, other than pretending to be going through the motions of stopping it. For example, Youth Prevention Program Day a week ago.

And to make it even worse for (Student Name), your school removed (Student Name)  from our sons class, and for what (Student Name) thought was a perfect opportunity for him to get away from his Caucasian bully Hunter.

From my understanding, your school also transferred his bully Hunter to the same new class right alongside (Student Name). Allowing his bully, the Caucasian Hunter, to pick up where he left off in their previous class.

The irony of it all… I asked (Student Name) if this had ever happened before and if he had ever brought it to the attention of a teacher?

He explained it has, and when he does reach out for help, the teachers just lecture his Caucasian bully Hunter, and the situation is over.

At what point does your school stop just issuing empty threats and take action and control of these situations?

At what point does your school and staff decide that bullying is not acceptable on any level, and there is no need to be scared of a child for wanting to address it accordingly?

When will your school and staff start taking responsibility for the children you are entrusted with each day and their anxiety, fear, and depression that comes with the lack of consequences against bullies?

Again I guess because (Student Name) background is Filipino/El Salvadoran, no one cares. I am surprised that your staff has not yet made him apologize for making his Caucasian bully Hunter mad for no reason, which resulted in these assaults against (Student Name).

Your school and staff always take the most minimal amount of action required in their attempt to protect their Caucasian students.

How often must (Student Name) seek help from your staff before someone finally decides to send this Caucasian bully Hunter to the office and have it noted on his file?

(Student Name) is very polite, extremely friendly, well-spoken, and an intelligent child. And this is not what he or his parents signed up for when they moved here to St. Catharines and enrolled in Connaught School.

Instead of pussyfooting around with these children, why don’t you get serious, take control, and lay down some strict standards with your staff on dealing with their personal preferences for children and their inability to deal with bullying?

It is ridiculous that two non-Caucasian children have been bullied in your school so far this year, that I know of right now. And not a single staff member, including your vice-principal Jacqueline Ravazzolo, took them seriously.

As a principal, you are mandated under the CAFSA to protect children from harm and abuse, including physical, mental, and verbal. Is (Student Name) in Need of Protection for your school and staff?

You now need to reach out to (Student Name) parents and inform them that their son is being physically and verbally assaulted while in your school, and staff is doing nothing other than issuing pointless verbal warnings to his bully, the Caucasian Hunter, over and over.

And as this has now been brought to your attention by myself, you are mandated to investigate and inform (Student Name) parents of what is happening to their son while in care of your school.

(Student Name) may not be my child, but I will be dammed if I sit back and allow another school to ignore bullying, especially when all the Ontario School Boards always want more funding for bullying campaigns, training, and implementation of new policies. And in fact, nothing ever changes; it is the same racist behavior as it has been for the past decades!

I have worked in the funeral industry for many years, and I have removed enough young children to know the effects of bullying. I have taken little girls out of showers that have hung themselves while little boys hang in their closets. So don’t you and your staff continue to sluff off these children who request help as insignificant and pointless request?

If you want to blame the system as being the problem, then change the system! No one but yourself and your staff has the power to make these changes to the procedural protocols of how to deal with bullies. Don’t try and pass the responsibility off to the parents, politicians, or society as a whole.

Because if you and your staff spoke up loud enough and often enough as you do for your pay raises and benefit increases. Bullying would not be an issue in our Ontario Schools, and this racist treatment towards non-Caucasian students would be significantly lower.

I also appreciate your inability to address my previous letter concerning the applicant and his Caucasian bully Marcus. It was refreshing to see how you did not reach out to reassure our family and the applicant that all steps were being put in place to ensure that the applicant was safe and free from abuse while in the care of your school and staff who are paid to do so.

It is nice to see that you were so concerned that the applicant parents were being informed that the system would investigate and had dealt with it promptly and appropriately.

But your lack of actions clearly shows you were either pissed off and offended as a Caucasian by the comments in my previous letter and for calling out your staff’s racist behavior. And/or you were afraid to acknowledge the letter and our concerns, fearing that you would have to address your vice-principals Jacqueline Ravazzolo extremely inappropriate and racist behavior.

Therefore you did what everyone else has done in the past; you decided to ignore our family letter and our concerns by not addressing us with a common courtesy follow-up letter and just hoped we would go away.

I see that communication between the Ontario School Boards and parents is still at an all-time low, despite the many pleas from school employees about wanting more communication between staff and parents. This is okay by me, as it clearly shows your level of professionalism. And then you want to wonder why I say what I say? Let me quickly sum this up for you.

• I did not create these situations in your school.
• I did not create a staff that sluffs off bullying as a regular and everyday event.
• I am not the individual who made a Black child apologize to their bully, a Caucasian Marcus for no reason.
• I am not an individual who could not be bothered to take the time to reach out to the parents of this same Black child to explain that the situation was being dealt with and will keep them updated.
• I am not the individual who oversees a school that seems to think that bullying a non-Caucasian child is acceptable, and there should be nothing more than a quick lecture about not doing it to the bully.

That individual is you and your school!

Take control of your school and do your job. You are hired to protect our children from harm and abuse, first and foremost.

And if I continue to hear any more incidents of non-Caucasian children being abused physically and/or verbally and nothing being done other than repeated verbal warnings. I will file a Human Rights Complaint against you and the DSBN.

Because as we learned growing up, everything we say and do has consequences. But one of them is not a dead child hanging somewhere because a school principal and their adult staff refused to deal with the child’s bullies.