Peel school board apologizes for 'hurtful' content in Black girl empowerment event form

The Peel District School Board is apologizing for an incident it says should have never happened after a screenshot of a sign-up form for an event celebrating Black girls surfaced online with the words "blah blah blah" in the description.

The event, entitled "Black Girl, You are Loved," to be held in April was geared toward Kindergarten to Grade 8 female and non-binary students identifying as Black, African and Caribbean, the school said in an internal message to staff soliciting contributions for a video presentation.

"If you are interested in this amazing opportunity, please click here for more information," the message said.

But once inside the form, staff were met with a description that began with words of thanks for their participation and ended in "blah blah blah."

The form, with the word "draft" in capital letters at the top, left some feeling the incident only reinforced concerns about anti-Black racism within the board.

"And this is why the community struggles to believe 'the work' you are doing," wrote media personality and educator Jam Gamble in a tweet.

In a tweet Thursday morning, the board posted an apology saying the form was indeed shared in draft mode, but that the post "did not meet the equity, inclusion, anti-oppression and anti-racism standards of the Peel board."

"We recognize that the premature sharing of the content in draft form was both hurtful and damaging to members of our Peel community, particularly Black staff members in our schools. For this we apologize and especially to Black, African and Caribbean staff and community members," the apology from the board's executive lead of public engagement and communications, Tiffany Gooch, said in part.

The post has since been removed from the board's internal communications page and will be re-shared once all the information is accurate, the board added.

"An incident like this should never happen under any circumstances," the post continued. "This incident highlights why our work to name and dismantle systemic racism by addressing and naming racist actions is critical."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.