Antisemitic graffiti found at Toronto schools follows many racist and hateful acts
The discovery of hate graffiti is just another incident added to a long list of issues going on at Toronto schools recently.
Antisemitic graffiti was found outside three Toronto schools — Central Technical High School, Rosedale Heights School of the Arts and Malvern Collegiate Institute on Wednesday morning, Toronto Police Service spokesperson Const. Laura Brabant tells blogTO.
At all three schools, the graffiti or writing was found on the outside of the school — at Malvern, it was on a container on the grounds of the school.
"These are being treated as hate-motivated and our Hate Crime Unit is fully engaged," Brabant said. "Due to the similarities in each incident, investigators are exploring whether they are linked."
The Toronto District School Board did not immediately reply to a request for comment but Ryan Bird, a spokesperson for the TDSB, told the CBC they are working with police. Bird called the incidents "harmful and completely unacceptable on or off school property."
The three incidents follow a string of troubling racist, hate and transphobic acts at Toronto schools, according to the Black Student Success Committee.
Still relevant. Our joint statement regarding racist and other hateful incidents in @tdsb schools, and the privacy practices perpetuating harm. pic.twitter.com/L2OWQA32Eu
— Black Student Success Committee (@QVBSS) March 2, 2022
Six different schools experienced incidents in February, ironically during a month designated for African Heritage Month, Chinese Heritage Month and Lunar New Year celebrations.
The committee said in each case human rights and codes of conduct were violated, and they accuse the TDSB of a "lack of transparency and accountability."
Acts of racism went unreported to the parent/guardian community at Howard Public School. At Central Technical School, the same school that was just hit with antisemitic graffiti, a Black trans student experienced racially-motivated bullying.
At Etobicoke School of the Arts, anti-Black messages were found in three different parts of the school.
Economically challenged, Black, 2SLGBTQ+ and Muslim council members were targeted and stereotyped publicly on a non-official social media platform associated with Swansea Public School.
"Years of documented harm and racism faced by racialized parents and their children are continuously mocked, downplayed and dismissed by non-Black identifying parents, leaving racialized council members and their children traumatized and afraid," the Black Student Success Committee notes.
The committee noted the white supremacist uprising from members of the so-called "Freedom Convoy" and suggested a lack of strong leadership emboldens haters.
"Those in power have a responsibility to act swiftly to remove threats and restore community safety whether that’s in our Parliament city or public school board."
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