Erasing racism in our schools

By Harsha Walia (she/her), Racial Equity Projects Lead, Centre for Family Equity

In January 2025, Amy McGregor, a Grade 7 student, organized a protest outside her Langley elementary school, saying that school authorities had failed to tackle racism. Amy had been dehumanized through violent anti-Black racial slurs for two months. Without adequate attention or a response from school administration to this harm, the racial bullying against her increased and compelled her and her family to speak publicly about their experiences. (1)

Amy is one of many students who experience pervasive racism in BC’s K–12 public schools. According to a national Angus Reid survey and UBC study in 2021 (2) with youth aged 12–17 years old:

• Around 58% of students in Canada say they have seen other students insulted, bullied, or excluded based on their race or ethnicity.

• Indigenous and racialized students are 2–3 times more likely than white students to experience race-based bullying, exclusion, or insults.

• Over one-third of students who directly experienced racism at their school said that teachers ignore racist behaviour or are unaware of it.

At the Centre for Family Equity (CFE), we are dedicated to eliminating family poverty in BC. Our members regularly tell us how their experiences of racism intersect with poverty in the school system, making it harder for racialized children to flourish, learn, play, and thrive. Racial inequity is not a result of individual differences but of inequitable systems that perpetuate disproportionate discrimination and exclusion.

This racism must end. In the summer of 2025, CFE announced Kindergarten to Grade 12 without Racism: Families Lead the Way, a racialized parent- and caregiver-led project to address systemic racism in multiple areas of BC’s public education system.

The first part of our project involves a survey, K–12 without Racism Parent and Caregiver Survey, to scope key issues of racism that Indigenous, Black, newcomer, and racialized families experience in BC’s K–12 public education system. This includes documenting experiences of interpersonal racism between children, racial harm, or erasure in school curriculum; systemic racism and colonialism in the school system; and lack of accountability from schools in responding to racism.  

In the first month alone, we received over 70 responses from Indigenous and racialized families from across the province. Here is some of what we heard from parents:

Kids use racial words very casually, sometimes at schools for each other, not understanding that it can be hurtful to others.

My children have all stated in one way or another that they don’t feel comfortable expressing culturally at school.

The school communicates through emails about racism, but they don’t implement what they say when an issue about racism occurs.

When I seek support, I am often treated with disregard or my concerns are not taken seriously, which I believe plays into poor learning outcomes being considered normal for my Indigenous children. I had to fight with a team of support people.

My child has lost their desire to go to school and work hard. He feels targeted from racism and doesn’t engage because he knows his concerns are not taken seriously.

It is clear there is more for school staff, administrators, and the provincial government to do. In 2023, the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care released the K–12 Anti-Racism Action Plan. (3) This plan seeks to “help address discrimination, dismantle racism and make B.C. a more equitable, inclusive, and welcoming province for everyone,” while noting the harms of systemic racism and settler colonialism.

One of the main components of this plan is to encourage school districts in BC to implement anti-racism strategic plans within their districts, with a requirement to report back to the Ministry on their progress. The Surrey School District, for example, has developed its Racial Equity Strategic Plan. (4) This plan aims to respond to all forms of racism, infuse culturally responsive curriculum and resources, advance racial equity initiatives, and advance ongoing education and professional development.

For the next four years, the CFE will continue to track progress on these provincial and district-wide plans, while directly engaging families across the province to share experiences and gather data on the impact of racism in schools. We will mobilize community-driven research, evidence-based data, and parent-led policy change to transform BC’s School Act and BC’s Anti-Racism Act.

We know teachers and school staff also care deeply about racism and inequity in the school system, and many also experience it themselves. In an interview with BCTF’s Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression Office, Nikitha Fester observes, “When I think about racial justice, for me, it implies an action and change. It’s no longer enough to have the knowledge, but to make these understandings practicable.” (5) One of the ways teachers can join us in this work is to become collaborators by helping to spread the word and joining our action network at www.centreforequity.ca.

As revered Indigenous educator and Professor of Education Dr. Verna St. Denis (6) writes, “We need to join together to uncover and understand how racism and the normalizing and naturalizing of white superiority continue unabated in our schools and communities.” We look forward to uncovering and ending the harms of racism with you!

About the author

Harsha Walia (she/her) leads the Centre for Family Equity’s work including the K–12 without Racism: Families Lead the Way project. Harsha has organized in feminist, anti-racist, migrant justice, and anti-colonial movements for the past two decades, is an award-winning author, and is trained in the law.

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1 Simon Little and Emily Lazatin, “Protest at school in Langley after 12-year-old targeted with racial slurs,” Global News, January 2025: globalnews.ca/news/10956230/langley-racist-slurs-school-protest

2 Angus Reid and University of British Columbia, “Diversity and Education: Half of Canadian kids witness ethic, racial bullying at their school,” October 2021: angusreid.org/canada-school-kids-racism-diversity

3 BC Ministry of Education and Child Care, “Racial Equity Together: K–12 Anti-Racism Action Plan”: www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/erase/documents/k-12-anti-racism-strategy.pdf

4 Surrey Schools, “Racial Equity Strategic Plan 2023–2028: Our Journey Forward”: media.surreyschools.ca/media/Default/medialib/surrey-schools-racial-equity-strategic-plan.213fac151871.pdf

5 Nikitha Fester and Milan Singh, “From language to action,” Teacher, May/June 2023: www.teachermag.ca/post/from-language-to-action-an-introduction-to-the-anti-racism-and-anti-oppression-office

6 Verna St. Denis, “Aboriginal Education and Anti-Racist Education: Building Alliances Across Cultural and Racial Identity,” Canadian Journal of Education, 30, 4 (2007), p. 1068–1092: files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ786083.pdf