"Zero tolerance" but no checkpoints?
This is a good example by a Montreal School Board doing the right thing and standing by their policies to protect and guarantee all students have the right to a racism-free learning environment, but there was a better way. Read the full story here.
As another school year comes an end, students look forward to signing and reminiscing about the school year with their yearbooks. Well imagine the shock and disappointment some of the students felt seeing a racial slur permanently printed in their book of memories! Frankly, it is not surprising that racial slurs were found in a student yearbook but what is shocking is that it wasn’t found until after the book was distributed to students. I’m sure that many of us assumed all entries in yearbooks are screened for this type of content before going to print but obviously, we are mistaken. The good news from this story is that this Montreal School Board took immediate action that included removing and reprinting the yearbook, taking disciplinary action against the students and warning other school boards to check their own yearbooks. A BrandRewindTM moment however, is the fact that the school’s yearbook process obviously is lacking when it comes to editing/check-points.
There are several BrandRewindTM moment’s in this story. The first is obviously the student’s poor judgement and racially motivated attack on their fellow students, their families, friends and community that now have a tarnished memory of the 2021-2022 school year that ended in racism. Outside of a public apology, deeper reflection, self-awareness and education are also needed (yes, interesting that this is happening where education is the focus). The second rewind moment is the leaders who own the yearbook process. What other microaggressions or attacks have been missed? Which leads to the question of what are other school’s doing for their process? How many other yearbooks are in distribution with this harmful language? The final rewind moment that I will raise is for school boards. From a brand perspective, you have failed your students by not mandating that there are checks on all written materials going into or out of all schools. The damage has been done to students and their loved ones who saw and heard about the hurtful language. How else will you uphold your policies of racism-free learning environment but through intentional screening and checkpoints? Our school systems have a lot of work to do as far as racial discrimination and I hope all school boards and educators learn from this lesson.