According to the petition, BIPOC students have faced racist statements, been monitored in hallways and bathrooms and been policed by Ottawa Police Service School Resource Officers after the program was removed by the school board last year.
Students added that Muslim students have reportedly had religious quotes removed from yearbooks, BIPOC students have been given more suspensions, BIPOC students' futures were threatened, and calls to police were also reportedly threatened. The petition also claims that students have been searched without permission and that the school has been made to "feel like a jail."
"In the past weeks, some students and families have shared concerns about the school climate at Hillcrest and that changes in practice have led to feelings of unfair treatment, punitive actions and a lack of student voice," said Darcy Knoll, communications coordinator for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
"These are serious concerns which included expressions of harassment, bias and racism against certain groups. School administrators have worked with the Superintendent, the OCDSB Human Rights and Equity Advisor, and community partners to respond to these concerns immediately by creating spaces to listen to concerns and hear ideas about the path forward."
The most recent complaints made by students follow an incident on June 17, where the City of Ottawa By-law and Regulatory Services charged a student in connection with using an e-cigarette in a prohibited place and supplying vapour product to someone under 19. The student was also fined $795 for the charges under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act
"BLRS works closely with school boards for the enforcement of the SFOA on school property and is in regular communication with school administrators across Ottawa," said Roger Chapman, Director, By-law and Regulatory Services.
In an emailed statement, Chapman added that By-law and Regulatory Services is mandated to carry out such law enforcement under the act.
Police-free advocacy group said it's seen more racism complaints at Hillcrest
In an email sent to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, police-free advocacy group Asilu Collective called on the school board to remove fines that were given to the student and recommended that the school board adopt a harm reduction approach to e-cigarettes.
Asilu Collective said it has received several complaints of racism at Hillcrest High School since setting up its anonymous reporting tool for racist incidents and policing in schools, as noted in the email shared on Twitter.
"However, since the inception of Asilu’s anonymous reporting tool for incidents of policing in schools, we have noticed an overwhelming majority of reports have come from students at Hillcrest HS," reads one tweet from Asilu Collective.
"Additionally, we demand that #OCDSB & the City of Ottawa eliminate the fine given to the aforementioned student as it explicitly violates OCDSB’s commitment to bias-aware intervention strategies & progressive discipline as mitigating factors were not utilized."
In June of last year, Asilu Collective issued a report about officer presence in schools and racism, noting policing disproportionately affected BIPOC students and that Ottawa's School Resource Officers program relied on preemptive policing.
“[Teacher name] has admitted to not liking students of colour because they were always the most misbehaved,” reads a quote in the report, attributed to a racialized former Ottawa-Carleton District School Board student.
Earlier in 2020, the Ottawa Carleton District School Board issued a statement on anti-Black racism noting, "The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has a strong commitment to equity and inclusion. We acknowledge that we have work to do within our system. As a school district, we are committed to challenging ourselves to examine privilege and question how we can make changes to eliminate racism from within our system."
Regarding the latest allegations, the OCDSB said that some students and families have voiced an interest in engaging more with school staff, discussing student-staff relationships and exploring what learning at Hillcrest will look like. The board added that conversations will continue into September.
"To support these conversations, school teams will review the data from the recent School Climate Survey and work with school staff, community partners, students and parents to help identify actions that will focus on improving students’ sense of belonging and feelings of safety and other areas of identified need based on school results and student voice," said Knoll.
Narcity reached out to Hillcrest High School for comment but did not receive a reply by the time this article was published.
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