Written by How might we learn from the recent human rights annual report published by the TDSB? Today on the show I speak with education activist and parent advocate Alexis Dawson.
When the recent TDSB Human Rights Report revealed that “race or race related grounds is the most frequent ground of complaint received by the Human Rights Office making up 54% of all complaints,” Alexis Dawson was an obvious person I wanted to talk to. She is the current Community Co-Chair of the Black Student Achievement Community Advisory Committee, she is a school council co-chair at her children’s school, the Former TDSB Ward 9 Trustee, a DEI consultant, and an all around thought leader in our community.
We speak to the data in this report that shows “that students who self-identify as being Black, Indigenous and Indigenous Spirituality practicing students and gender non-conforming students are much less inclined to feel that school rules are applied to them fairly,” (p. 5) and we go beyond this document to better understand recent moments Alexis has personally experienced that highlight the importance of dismantling anti-Black racism and hatred in all its forms.
This is a powerful, honest, and important conversation about the present tense, but also the future of our schools. Please welcome to the show Alexis Dawson.