The Toronto District School Board voted 12-11 Tuesday night to establish an Afrocentric school by Sept 2009 and to begin Afrocentric programs in three others. The school is to be open to all students who wish to attend and must meet all the curriculum requirements of the province.
Premier Daltpn McGuinty and the Education Minister Kathleen Wynne have stated their opposition to the idea of a separate school. Two student trustees who spoke at the meeting spoke against the idea as well.
Loreen Small, the mother of Jordan Manners, a teen aged boy shot dead last year in a so called “troubled school” attended by many black students, spoke out against the proposal.
The board also resolved to put in place programs to address the special needs of all underachieving stucents.
About Mark Lee
Mark Lee has been a long-time journalist writing, editing and producing in print, radio television and new media.