As global conflict events occur, our school community members experience a multitude and range of impacts and our staff are working to navigate support for students in their learning environments so that their classroom education continues and their achievement is prioritized.
As always, we work to ensure all students feel safe and supported in their educational goals and pathways and staff feel safe and supported in their workplaces.
Guiding Principles:
- Our staff work to support students and each other, and make every effort to be thoughtful and responsive, respecting the diverse perspectives within our community, and ensuring a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.
- Our responsibility for building and maintaining safe learning environments comes through education and sometimes with corrective, restorative and supportive decisions and actions that are appropriate for the ages and stages of children and youth.
Conflict in the Middle East
With respect to conflict in the Middle East we have set the following direction.
All students have the right to express their identities. This must be balanced with the responsibility not to inadvertently perpetuate anti-Arab racism, anti-Israeli racism, anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism, or Islamophobia.
Permitted Expressions
- Clothing: Students are permitted to wear clothing, sashes, etc. displaying flags, maps, country colours, keffiyehs, etc. and including slogans or symbols, etc.
- Flags: Students are permitted to carry, wear, and display flags in personal spaces, including in desks, inside lockers, or on avatars etc.
- Maps: Students are permitted to wear and display maps, including historical maps, in personal spaces including desks, lockers, on avatars or in signature lines, etc.
Not Permitted Expressions
- Students are not permitted to utter, wear, display or promote hate or racist symbols, slogans, or incite violence or harassment.
Permitted
- Slogans or symbols that signal solidarity, such as “Free Palestine” etc. are permitted as long as they don’t violate the Code of Conduct.
Not permitted
- At school, and in school activities, the expression "From the river to the sea" and the Hamas/Military symbols are not permitted. Although there are multiple interpretations, these have been used to call for the elimination of Jewish peoples and are not aligned with creating an environment where Jewish students, families, and staff also feel safe and belonging. Other slogans or symbols that signal solidarity, such as “Free Palestine” etc. are permitted as long as they don’t violate the Code of Conduct.
- Students are permitted to organize fundraising initiatives in support of causes they care about.
- Decisions to allow a fundraiser to proceed should not necessarily be interpreted as an endorsement of the charity or cause by school staff or the OCDSB.
- Staff will ensure that fundraisers and similar initiatives are conducted in a respectful manner.
Staff are required to address incidents of hate or discrimination promptly and consider relevant mitigating factors, including trauma and identity-related issues.
These mitigating factors are particularly relevant when considering behaviour that may be triggered by trauma arising from the conflict, and/or a person’s identity and must be intentionally considered when determining an appropriate response to a behaviour.
Additional information regarding OCDSB policies and procedures
For further clarification
- OCDSB Policy P.125.SCO School District Code of Conduct at Art. 5.5
- OCDSB Procedure PR.628.SCO Student Dress Code at Art. 4.4(e)
- OCDSB Policy P.147.GOV Human Rights at Art 4.7(f)