Oakwood Collegiate proposed as T.O.’s first Africentric high school—but nobody asked the students first
Toronto’s Oakwood Collegiate Institute on St. Clair Avenue West may become the first Africentric high school in the city. Just one problem: the Toronto District School Board has so far failed to consult students, teachers and the surrounding committee in its proposal. According to the Toronto Star, students were outraged when they awoke on Saturday to discover their school could house Toronto’s first Africentric high school come September. Parents learned about the proposal in the media and, later, via a letter on the school’s Web site that announced a Tuesday-night public meeting to address the matter, organized after much community and school council dissension.
Co-chair of OCI’s school council, David Battison, a former Oakwood student himself, told the Star, “They’re trying to ram this down our throats without any consultation. Everyone’s devastated. I have not heard one person or student that approves of this.” Students have started a Facebook group and an on-line petition in protest. The petition reads “Oakwood has been a successful MULTICULTURAL school for 100 years, so why change it now? This is a public school and anyone of any race is allowed to attend without any ‘special treatment.’”
At the meeting on Tuesday night, however, trustee Maria Rodrigues hopes to clear up rumours and misunderstandings about the proposed Africentric program. There is, in fact, one other Africentric school in Toronto—an elementary school, Africentric Alternative, which started in 2009. Similar to the proposed high school at Oakwood, Africentric Alternative is a school-within-a-school and students can take classes offered by the host school and vice versa. The TDSB is considering Oakwood as the first Africentric high school partly due to space; Oakwood currently has 730 students and room for approximately 300 more. Since Africentric Alternative already has a wait list for its program, the proposed new secondary school program may need the extra space as well. That is, if the proposal is approved by a committee of trustees on Wednesday.
• Oakwood students blindsided by Africentric school proposal [Toronto Star]
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/oakwood-collegiate-proposed-as-t-o-s-first-africentric-high-school-but-nobody-asked-the-students-first/&title=Oakwood Collegiate proposed as T.O.’s first Africentric high school—but nobody asked the students first&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Oakwood-Collegiate.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_61853" align="alignleft" width="315" caption="Oakwood Collegiate (Image: TDSB)"][/caption]
Toronto’s Oakwood Collegiate Institute on St. Clair Avenue West may become the first Africentric high school in the city. Just one problem: the Toronto District School Board has so far failed to consult students, teachers and the surrounding committee in its proposal. According to the Toronto Star, students were outraged when they awoke on Saturday to discover their school could house Toronto’s first Africentric high school come September. Parents learned about the proposal in the media and, later, via a letter on the school’s Web site that announced a Tuesday-night public meeting to address the matter, organized after much community and school council dissension.
Co-chair of OCI’s school council, David Battison, a former Oakwood student himself, told the Star, “They’re trying to ram this down our throats without any consultation. Everyone’s devastated. I have not heard one person or student that approves of this.” Students have started a Facebook group and an on-line petition in protest. The petition reads “Oakwood has been a successful MULTICULTURAL school for 100 years, so why change it now? This is a public school and anyone of any race is allowed to attend without any ‘special treatment.’”
At the meeting on Tuesday night, however, trustee Maria Rodrigues hopes to clear up rumours and misunderstandings about the proposed Africentric program. There is, in fact, one other Africentric school in Toronto—an elementary school, Africentric Alternative, which started in 2009. Similar to the proposed high school at Oakwood, Africentric Alternative is a school-within-a-school and students can take classes offered by the host school and vice versa. The TDSB is considering Oakwood as the first Africentric high school partly due to space; Oakwood currently has 730 students and room for approximately 300 more. Since Africentric Alternative already has a wait list for its program, the proposed new secondary school program may need the extra space as well. That is, if the proposal is approved by a committee of trustees on Wednesday.
• Oakwood students blindsided by Africentric school proposal [Toronto Star]){kind=link}
so this isn’t segregation because…
If you honestly are wondering why this isn’t segregation then please read up on the civil rights era in the United States to understand what it is. This is no where near it and to equate the two undermines what those who lived through that time went through. You may disagree with the school but please do it more intelligently.
When flipping through the oldies but goodies of yester year, our yearbooks even then were quite the multi-cultured pot of faces, and skin colours and backgrounds, whose absolute stupid idea is it to make it a segregated school?!?!??! I love…d being a cheerleader for our dark and white skinned boys of the basketball team, the soccer, and the rugby team….Damn right the students should be up in arms, the entire community there centered at Oakwood and St. Clair should be banning that idiotic idea!!!! Then what?? Only african teachers??? Where does that draw a line??? In complete and utter racism?!!!See More
– if race really doesn’t matter in society then why would it matter that it is “segregated” school? how could we tell?
– “black” people have a diversity of skin colours and hair textures.
– skin colour and “race” are not interchangeable. not all black-skinned people are the same culturally. so, a school can be diverse despite students having the “same” skin colour. not recognising this is the result of an overvaluing of skin colour, the very thing we are told doesn’t, or shouldn’t, matter.
– there are other schools in the city that are “segregated” via religion, sexual orientation and income. no outrage about those?
– this appears to be idea that is responding to the needs of the community (e.g., parents want to have their kids have that experience), i’m thinking that has more weight than mult-culti nostalgia.
– the tdsb though owed it too the students of oakwood and to the priniciple of fairness and transparency to involve the community in the decision.
I think everyone misread “Africentric”. It’s not a school just for Black folk. It’s not school that only focuses on Black students. The cirriculum is Afro-Canadian based. No different than mainstream schools being Euro-Canadian based.
And since when do school boards ask students before doing anything?! Do they ask before funding is cut on afterschool programs? or anything else remotely important?
no. they don’t. Next story please. This isn’t big news
I think that the outrage is misguided. I attended the meeting last night and heard what is being proposed. Nobody is “turning” Oakwood into anything. This is the equivalent of saying “Hey, you have 300 extra spaces in your classrooms, can we borrow them to accommodate a special program?” And they key element here is that of choice. Nobody plans to grab Black students by the arm and force them into the school. If a student is interested in learning in an Africentric framework, they can. And if they are not interested, they can keep right on going to the same school with the same so-called “multicultural” perspective that they have been receiving.
Why not have a school for Muslims and don’t forget Chinese and then u could have area’s of the City where these diverse people can live together. The mosaic effect that it promotes. You also have Black Muslims that may not want to associate with black Catholics or Christians, for sure they’ll require their own prayer time. This is just politics and added pressures from minority groups who believe that’s the way to problem solve. How does separation promote oneness Some groups want to have countries within spaces of other Countries like in England where English is not welcome. The majority of the world is not black people or white people. If we cannot live with-out walls then there is no Canada never mind Oakwood Collegiate. This is from a prior student. Wise up and realize slavery is just as common now as then. Mostly found in Africa by blacks I have read. Is that what is going to be taught in the black school within the black or white school. Or is it just things that are politically correct and popular. The kids are kids not Africans they are Canadians. Stop making a big deal out of things. I get tired of white people taking the blame and being called racist. They are no more racist as other people are. Give the children a chance to work it out and stop meddling.