School Violence and Africentric Schools
January 18, 2008
I was deeply disturbed today while reading the paper. The topic of violence in schools has been prevalent in Toronto these past few weeks, since the release of a report on that subject that was initiated after the shooting death of 15 year old student Jordan Manners, the first shooting fatality on school property in the history of The Toronto District School Board. The report has 126 recommendations on how to make schools safer. Some of them are logical, feasible, and easy to implement, and I sincerely hope that efforts are made to follow some of the directives of the report.
Running parallel to this situation has been the demands for an Africentric school to open in Toronto, a specialized school that will teach an African-focused curriculum. I will not focus on the many reasons I think this is a bad idea (basically I think that any form of division and segregation is misguided and backwards, and the idea of an African focus seems too broad, as though ever student of African descent will have the same experiences, as though you can reduce all the diversity of the African Diaspora into one essentialist “African”).
Although this disturbs me, what I find truly disturbing is the fact that groups are connecting these disparate situations. Basically, people are using the increase of violence and the apparently pervasive “culture of fear” in our school systems to renew calls for racial segregation in our school system. A recent newspaper spread had these articles side by side, their thematic connection made clear by their placement. I was shocked and saddened to see this, and I wondered if the undertone of racism was intentional, or is the culture of racism so pervasive that people just assumed the connection between race and violence is just assumed. Whatever the reason, whatever justification one could make, I think that connecting these issues is incorrect, and does not serve the needs of our students appropriately. Misguided half truths are not helpful, especially given the import of the situation. After all, the only thing at stake is the next generation. No big deal for some, I suppose.
