Surrey’s school district has completed its five-year racial equity plan, outlining strategies on how schools throughout the district will commit to supporting BIPOC students and staff, in response to incidents of racism and discrimination that have been impacting the school community for years.
B.C.’s Education Ministry announced the K-12 Anti-Racism Action Plan in January to create change in the province’s schools, making them “feel welcoming and supportive for people of all backgrounds,” Minister Rachna Singh said at the time. School District No. 36 released its Racial Equity Strategic Plan at the June board meeting.
In spring 2021, the largest school district in the province had BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of colour) students, staff, parents and others in the community detail their experiences with racism during listening circles. This led to the district developing a Racial Equity department, with longtime teacher and principal JB Mahli chosen as the director of instruction.
Mahli said he was “honoured” to present the plan to the board, while also announcing that two helping teachers — Harvir Hothi and Suparsha Sharda — and administrative assistant Harkiran Kullar have been added to the department.
“Guiding our foundation will be human rights for all,” Mahli said.
Collaboration with students, staff and other residents is something that was done and will be continuing throughout the next five years, the plan emphasizes. A video featuring students and staff speaking about racism was also shared at the board meeting.
“In this plan is really the foundation of ending Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination and nurturing social, cultural and the economic well-being of our Indigenous students,” Mahli explained.
From 2023-28, SD36 will focus on advancing racial equity initiatives through strengthening and advancing diversity and belonging, providing ongoing education to staff to develop anti-racist literacy and professional development, promote understanding of racism and create trauma-informed practices to responding to racism and introduce culturally-appropriate curriculum and resources while allowing space for various cultural events in schools.
Listed in the plan is also an emphasis on addressing anti-Black racism. During the listening circles, students and parents explained that the use of the N-word by non-Black people in schools is common, impacting Black students negatively.
In response, the district says they will “increase and participate in opportunities to listen and consult with Black students, staff and families on the prevalent use of the N-word in schools and to work together to affirm how dangerous, inappropriate and unacceptable it is to speak, hear, and/or write the N-word in any form in schools,” the strategic plan reads.
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“We’ve been awakened to what our students tell us about racial overtones in the school and I think it’s so important that we all embrace the work that you’re doing and that we do it together because only then do we know we’ve achieved what we really want to achieve,” Trustee Terry Allen said.
To encourage a sense of belonging for marginalized students, schools in Surrey and White Rock will have more resources on the topic of racial equity available in school libraries and will invite Indigenous Elders to classrooms more frequently to educate students.
The district will also be working with its HR department to create recruitment and retention strategies “aimed at increasing racialized representation in the workplace and celebrating diversity as an asset, with special emphasis on Indigenous peoples.”
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Other changes listed include increasing the number of languages available for school documents and resources on the Surrey Schools website, providing schools with more guest speakers to discuss racial equity, support Black Student Unions and other anti-oppression coalitions and holding meetings regularly with the Racial Equity Working Group, which is made up of staff, students, parents and others.
Available to students to anonymously report experiences of racism, bullying or other forms of discrimination is the Protecting Surrey Schools Together (PSST) website.
“Our students continue to provide such powerful messages… and so they will continue to be our guiding beacon in this work as we move forward,” Mahli said.
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