Stephen Lecce reviewing TDSB anti-racism training in wake of former principal’s suicide

Of note:

Ontario’s Education Minister Stephen Lecce says he has asked his staff to review the circumstances surrounding a series of anti-racism training sessions held by the Toronto District School Board in the spring of 2021 following the recent suicide of a former principal who said he was bullied and harassed during the sessions.

“These are serious and disturbing allegations,” Lecce said in a written statement. “No staff member should ever be subject to harassment while in their place of work.”

Richard Bilkszto, a 60-year-old retired principal, sued the TDSB earlier this year, alleging that his reputation was “systemically demolished” during two anti-Black racism training sessions in the spring of 2021 when, after he had challenged some of the speaker’s comments, he was singled out and accused of supporting white supremacy.

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board allowed Bilkszto’s claim for a “mental stress injury” in 2021 and awarded him compensation for two months of lost earnings. The adjudicator of his case found that the facilitator of the training sessions was “abusive, egregious and vexatious” in their conduct and that it rose “to the level of workplace harassment and bullying.”

Bilkszto, who alleged in his lawsuit that he suffered “severe emotional distress” as a result of what happened in the sessions, died by suicide earlier this month, according to a statement his lawyer posted to Twitter last week.

A member of Bilkszto’s family confirmed his death to the Star, but declined further comment.

In his statement, Lecce offered condolences to Bilkszto’s family and friends, adding that the tragedy “underscores the need for greater accountability of school boards and the necessity to ensure professional training is free from harassment and intimidation.”

He said he has asked his staff “to review what happened in this instance in the TDSB and bring me options to reform professional training and strengthen accountability on school boards so this never happens again.”

The school board released its own statement, jointly signed by Director of Education Colleen Russell-Rawlins and associate directors Audley Salmon and Louise Sirisko, saying they “share the Ministry of Education’s desire to learn what happened” and they will work with the ministry as part of any review.

“We recognize that many are grieving the loss of Richard, who was a colleague, mentor and friend,” the statement reads. “TDSB is in the process of gathering information to better understand the events that occurred.”

KOJO Institute, the company that facilitated the training sessions, said Tuesday that it also “welcomes” a ministry review into the matter and “will co-operate fully” with ministry officials.

The association representing TDSB principals and vice-principals is also calling for an independent review of the training sessions.

The Toronto School Administrators Association said Bilkszto had contacted the association in the aftermath of the sessions saying he had been “bullied, intimidated and harassed” by the facilitators. The association says it asked the school board at that point to investigate Bilkszto’s concerns. “To our knowledge, an investigation was never undertaken.”

According to Bilkszto’s lawsuit, the conflict arose when, during the second of four virtual training sessions, the facilitator, Kike Ojo-Thompson, suggested Canada was more racist than the U.S., in part because it had not reckoned with its racist history in the same way the U.S. had.

When Bilkszto disagreed it led to a brief, but tense exchange. Later in the session and in the following week’s session, Ojo-Thompson is alleged to have implicitly referred to the exchange as an example of “resistance” in support of white supremacy.

The allegations in Bilkszto’s lawsuit have not been proven. The TDSB has not filed a statement of defence.

In a statement provided to the Star prior to Bilkszto’s death, the KOJO institute said it disputes many of the allegations in Bilkszto’s lawsuit against the TDSB, “including the descriptions of interactions with KOJO Institute staff which paint an inaccurate and incomplete picture” of what happened in the sessions.

The company, which has provided anti-racism training to dozens of organizations in the public, private and charitable sectors (including the Toronto Star), is not a party to Bilkszto’s lawsuit. They said it would be “inappropriate” to comment further since the matter was before the courts.

Following Bilkszto’s death, the company provided an additional statement offering condolences to Bilkszto’s loved ones. They added that any interaction with individual TDSB employees during the sessions was “brief” and that they had “no involvement” in any investigation by the school board or the WSIB following the sessions.

In recent months, Bilkszto had become outspoken in his opposition to various school board initiatives aimed at reducing inequity in education. The statement announcing his death, released by his lawyer, says that after his “troubling experience with the (TDSB)’s equity agenda, Richard began advocating to bring people together through a more equality-focused, pro-human approach.”

In May, Bilkszto appeared on The Agenda with Steve Paikin and criticized the school board’s new lottery system for specialized schools, arguing that it was anti-meritocratic. He was also the Toronto chapter president for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, a U.S.-based, free-speech advocacy group.

Source: Stephen Lecce reviewing TDSB anti-racism training in wake of former principal’s suicide