On June 1, 2021, the Washington Post published an opinion piece by David Moscrop, author of Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones called “Opinion: A Toronto educator is being attacked for standing up for Palestinians.”
Moscrop outlined the situation that is occurring in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB):
A Toronto educator is on home assignment and under investigation in Ontario after sharing anti-hate, decolonial and anti-oppression materials with teachers through an opt-in mailing list. Javier Dávila is one of eight student equity program advisers for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). He has, for years, shared equity and diversity materials with teachers through his mailing list.
On May 16 and 19, he shared resources about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its history. These were the 26th and 27th mailouts of the school year. Leading with “Understanding Antisemitism at its Nexus with Israel and Zionism,” the guide explained what antisemitism is and the difference between criticizing a people and a state. Other materials include a critique of Canada for supporting Israel and a Washington Post opinion column on Israel’s colonialist project. The guide is filled with work from experts, journalists and critics of Israeli state policy.
Moscrop pointed out that Dávila’s work provides a “counterbalance to persistent narratives and fears that have prevented many from speaking out in support of Palestine or providing anti-oppression and anti-colonial training.” He said that schools “often pretend to adopt missions that include critical education. However, when faced with controversy, even in the face of facts and expertise, some schools and boards retreat into themselves and cower.”
But Moscrop didn’t stop there.
“When we look back at this moment,” he wrote, “we will be ashamed of the attacks against Dávila and ashamed of those who targeted him and those who support him. History will not be kind to bullies.”
In response to Moscrop’s questions about the case, the TDSB issued a statement which reads: “The resources in question were not reviewed or approved by the TDSB. Staff, including the Board’s Employee Services Dept, are currently investigating this matter. During this time, the staff member will be on home assignment. We are also in the process of removing this staff member’s current and previous group mailings/newsletters from TDSB email inboxes.”
Moscrop also shared that on May 28, interim director of education Karen Falconer circulated an email to staff in which she brought up “countless staff members” who are "coming forward and sharing their experiences of anti-Israeli racism, antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia here at home.”
“Setting aside the fact that ‘anti-Israeli racism’ doesn’t exist,” Moscrop wrote, “given that Israel is a state, not a race, Falconer’s email goes on to say ‘it is critical that you are cognizant of the impact of your comments when expressing your opinions. When comments create harm, are racist in nature, or are discriminatory, they cannot be condoned. Before expressing an opinion — online or otherwise — please ask yourself: Does this lead to productive dialogue? Will this cause harm to any of my students or colleagues?’
Moscrop wrote, “On its face, the message seems appropriate. But in the context of the investigation into Davila and his home assignment, the undertone is clear and chilling.”
It’s worth noting that the Peel District School Board (PDSB) recently apologized for launching a lawsuit against six Black community advocacy groups who spoke out about anti-Black racism in that board, and the director of education lost his job. Even though some people viewed some of the comments that the advocacy groups made to be discriminatory, PDSB apologized anyway, recognizing that PDSB was indeed guilty of discrimination.
It appears the TDSB hasn’t learned any lessons. Falconer seems hell-bent on travelling down the same punitive road, without learning anything from the apology issued by PDSB.
Moscrop says Falconer “has caved to a column from a newspaper and moral panic, throwing Davila under the bus and sending a disconcerting message to its educators. Some of those folks, administrators in particular, have spoken out through an anonymous letter pointing out that ‘speaking in support of Palestinian lives does not equate with antisemitism’ and noting the ‘TDSB must be committed to working for ALL students and addressing ALL forms of oppression.’”
I said the exact same thing the anonymous administrators said to Ms. Falconer, in two different letters, one to Colleen Russell-Rawlins, Director of Education for PDSB, on February 5, 2021, and the other to Ms. Falconer, on February 3, 2021.
“Congratulations on all the exciting changes you are making in the PDSB!” I wrote to Ms. Russell-Rawlins and Bruce Rodrigues, the Supervisor of PDSB. “The ‘very senior leadership team’ in Peel now appears to consist of 3 Black persons, 2 Brown persons, and a white person – 4 women and 2 men. Well done! Are there any plans to add a Muslim person to the ‘very senior leadership’ team?”
I also asked Ms. Falconer similar questions: “How many of the current superintendents in TDSB are Muslim?” Has there ever been a Muslim superintendent in TDSB? When will TDSB be hiring more Muslim superintendents?
I asked these questions because I don’t believe there are currently any Muslim superintendents in TDSB. (In the past, I believe there’s only been one even though TDSB's census data shows that 19% of students in grades 7 to 12 in TDSB are Muslim. If TDSB’s data included K-6 students, its actual percentage of Muslim students would be significantly higher. I don't believe there have been any Muslim associate directors or directors in PDSB either, and I don’t believe there are any superintendents who self-identify as Muslim even though Peel’s census data for students in grades 9 – 12 shows that 22.5% of students are Muslim. If Peel’s data included K - 8 students, its actual percentage of Muslim students would be significantly higher.)
I became an activist after encountering a glass ceiling while working in education (7 men and only 2 women were on the senior leadership team, one of the trustees doing the hiring had espoused racist viewpoints toward Muslims and Indigenous peoples, and the trustees and the director of education didn’t even think to remove the racist trustee from hiring panels). Now I advocate for women and racialized individuals.
I asked these questions of PDSB and TDSB because I wanted to know if there were any plans to correct the disparity in PDSB and TDSB, any plans to hire and retain more South Asian teachers and administrators while also hiring and retaining more Black teachers and administrators. As educators, we are responsible for identifying and eliminating persistent inequities in the education system so the education system will be fairer and more inclusive for all students, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, or any other factor related to individual identity - while educators working within the system are punished for speaking out.
Asking questions like these doesn’t equate with being anti-Black or being anti-Semitic. It equates to the fact that we live in a xenophobic, homophobic and misogynistic world, and we have to shine a spotlight on any issues we see in order to bring about meaningful change.
Black lives matter. Jewish lives matter. Palestinian lives matter. Asian lives matter. South Asian lives matter. Indigenous lives matter. LGBTQ2+ lives matter. Women matter. As an education system, we must be committed to advocating for all students, all genders, all races etc. and to addressing all forms of oppression. (We even need to advocate for young male students who are trapped in female-centric classrooms.)
This means we have to allow equity advisors like Javier Dávila, for example, to counterbalance persistent narratives and fears that prevent many from speaking out. School boards cannot pretend to adopt missions that include critical education without, in this case, presenting a variety of Jewish and Palestinian viewpoints.
In “Young People Have a Desire to Save Their World. How Can We Help?” written by education experts Michael Fullan and Joanne Quinn (published on May 2, 2021 in EducationWeek), Fullan and Quinn wrote:
If the pandemic has revealed anything, it is the absence of leadership. You can almost see society crumbling. At the same time, we can sense the possibility of a radical new solution built around the fact that young people—some very young—have an interest in learning, their personal growth, and have an innate desire to be part of saving society.
We find that the young seem to be a bundle of 50 percent anxiety and 50 percent wanting to change the world. They need a focus and a way to mobilize that consists of both short-term success and a clear, moving path to fundamental changes in how and what we learn and its impact on creating a better planet.
The present education system lacks purpose, failing to capture the interests and needs of the vast majority of students. It does not generate individual and collective engagement essential for breakthrough learning. It does not operate as a force for equity and equality. It is a fault of the system, not the students and teachers in it.
It is a fault of the system, indeed.
Fullan and Quinn also wrote:
A new conception of leadership is emerging from the pandemic. We would call this the democratization of leadership in which participation, voice, inclusion, innovation, and influence is on the rise. It will require coordination, and something even tougher—integration—leaders at different levels who can forge unity of purpose around the new agenda. Equity of participation and greater equality of outcomes are core to this mission serving simultaneously social justice and societal prosperity—a win-win proposition.
There’s a lesson here for Ms. Falconer, Ms. Russell-Rawlins, and other school board directors of education: This is what the democratization of leadership looks like. We cannot suppress it. Leaders at all levels of every educational organization must forge a unity of purpose around this new agenda of equity of participation and greater equality of outcomes. We can simultaneously serve social justice and societal prosperity, while supporting our Jewish and Palestinian students all at the same time. It’s a win-win situation, just as Fullan and Quinn said.
There’s another way to look at this, which might bring more clarity. Carol Gilligan, an American ethicist and psychologist who is best known for her work on ethical community and ethical relationships, says all humans grow through four major moral stages – a selfish stage where we care only about ourselves, a care stage where we extend care to a chosen group, a universal care stage where we care for all groups, and an integrated stage where we find marginalization and oppression of all groups truly objectionable.
Educators like Dávila are operating from a higher level of psychological development. Dávila likely finds the marginalization and oppression of all groups truly objectionable. This does not make Dávila anti-Semitic. He, like most of us, want to see peace in the middle east, the end of hate toward all cultures, the end of trauma to Indigenous families, and the end of pain and suffering from both terrorism and war.
Education leaders who punish employees who speak out about oppression, colonialist projects, terrorism, war etc. are not coming from this higher stage of development. They are operating from the universal care stage of development or lower. These education leaders don’t find marginalization and oppression of all groups truly objectionable. This proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that greater equality of outcomes and equity of participation are not truly the core mission of the education system within the TDSB.
If PDSB truly cared about anti-Black racism and other forms of discrimination and oppression, it never would have launched a lawsuit against six Black community activist groups, Supervisor Rodrigues would not have needed to fire the director of education and apologize on behalf of the board. And Ms. Falconer would not have placed Javier Dávila on home assignment and put him under investigation for doing his job.
We need to speak out against school boards who suppress the emergence of the democratization of leadership - especially when they punish people for speaking out.
As Moscrop wrote:
Today we are in the midst of a shift in discourse as more and more of us recognize oppression and settler colonial violence, and as we mainstream the need to remedy historical injustice and prevent future transgressions. Educators are on the front lines of this moral awakening, and they ought not only to impart critical thinking skills to those they educate but also a commitment to justice and solidarity.
That imperative requires them to set aside any pretense of neutrality — which is undesirable in theory and impossible in practice — and to teach the truth. Each of us should join them as we stand in solidarity with Javier Davila and those who speak up for Palestinians.
We should also stand in solidarity with our Jewish families, students and trustees when we see and hear antisemitic comments and behaviour - but not by punishing those who present critical alternative viewpoints.
Debbie L. Kasman
M. Ed, Policy Studies, OISE/University of Toronto
Education Re-imagined
Analyst & Researcher, Author & Speaker
www.debbielkasman.com
Follow Debbie on Twitter: @debbiekasman and on Facebook: DebbieLKasman
{Update: Javier Dávila was reinstated to his position of Student Equity Program Advisor at the Toronto District School Board - without discipline - on July 16, 2021, three weeks after I wrote this scathing letter to the Ontario College of Teachers and sent a copy to Karen Falconer, all Toronto District School Board Superintendents and Trustees. Dávila wrote about his reinstatement here.
However, Dávila is under investigation again — this time for professional misconduct by the Ontario College of Teachers because a complaint was lodged against him by a lawyer named Michael Teper. The College’s Intake Team allowed the complaint to proceed — even though the matter was investigated through a formal investigation process that included TDSB's Employee Services, legal department, and Human Rights Office, and a letter concluding there was no wrongdoing and that no disciplinary action was warranted was sent to Dávila’s union president and to Dávila himself on July 14, 2021.
On November 17, 2021 Dávila’s lawyers Dimitri Lascaris and Stephen Ellis served B’nai Brith Canada and its CEO, Michael Mostyn, a Libel notice under the Ontario Libel and Slander Act.
On November 30, 2021, a TDSB Integrity Commissioner, with findings by an independent human rights expert, found Trustee Alexandra Lulka guilty of anti-Palestinian/anti-Muslim discrimination, but cleared her of two out of the three complaints brought against her after she tweeted about the situation. The Integrity Commissioner recommended censure for the finding of discrimination for having characterized the whole package of materials in a negative way.
The Integrity Commissioner also found that Trustee Lulka’s tweet did not influence Karen Falconer’s decision to investigate Dávila.
The Integrity Commissioner’s full report can be found here. The report was supposed to be tabled at the November 10th TDSB Board meeting, but the Board skipped over it without explanation. At the December 8th Board meeting, trustees voted 10 to 7 to reject the Integrity Commissioner’s finding that Trustee Lulka breached the Code of Conduct. Therefore a vote about censure was not required and Trustee Lulka will not be censured.
There is a Go Fund Me to support Dávila’s legal costs: https://www.gofundme.com/f/justiceforjavier-legal-costs-for-human-rights?qid=d449a9e14667cc2d0ae011d110a5036b.]