South Shore school apologizes after using homework with racial stereotypes

WARNING: This story contains images that may be disturbing for some people.

George Stetka was shocked Tuesday when he saw his 13-year-old daughter's French homework.

In the handout, she was asked to describe two "gangsters." One of the drawings depicts a character resembling a Black woman, named Yvette, holding a firearm and the other, Paolo, is a dark-skinned man wearing a bandana with his pants hanging low.

Another part of the assignment depicts a person of colour as a suspect at a crime scene.

"The fact that it happened on the first day of Black History Month made it even worse,'' Stetka said. "Any day is bad, but especially not that day.''

He said the images that send the message to kids that "criminals are Black."

Stetka's daughter, who is half Black, is a Grade 7 student at Centennial Regional High School in Greenfield Park, Que., on Montreal's South Shore. Stetka said he was told by the school's administration that the assignment had been used for the past three years without complaints.

"There's never been a problem before — nobody noticed or was shocked,'' Stetka said, adding that Centennial is a very multicultural school. "I think it's a case of the teacher being naive.''

He said doesn't think anybody should be punished or fired, and he has no plans to take legal action, but he wants school staff to be sensitized to the issue — to understand that it is wrong.

Sylvain Racette, director general of the Riverside School Board, which is responsible for Centennial, said he was "horrified" to see the images.

"We've very serious about celebrating diversity and that's one of our recurrent themes," he said.

Racette said the board is treating this as a "teachable moment" and the teacher will apologize to the kids who were hurt by the handout.

He said the assignment was created by the teacher, and does not come from the school board or the province's Ministry of Education.

He has been in touch with the school's administrator to make sure the images are no longer used. He said they will also speak to all staff at the school to make sure it doesn't happen again in the future.