The week of June 9th, a grade 12 student from Bell High School gave a valedictorian speech at her high school graduation. In her speech, she courageously went off-script and called out the colonial and genocidal atrocities today including the massacre of more than 17,000 Palestinian children in Gaza.” She went on to call out the Canadian government for its complicity in selling millions of dollars in goods to Israel.

For her courage, this young valedictorian was informally suspended, by being asked not to attend school the next day, by her Principal Jane Conrod, who in an email, called the speech “unauthorized” and “harmful”, despite the speech receiving an outpouring of support from students, staff and families.

This response to the valedictorian’s speech is outrageous and directly violates multiple OCDSB policies. Specifically, the OCDSB’s stated policy which permits the use of the phrase “Free Palestine”. It is also a direct violation of the OCDSB’s Equity Policy on Recognizing Anti-Palestinian Racism which clearly states that “stopping or preventing conversations about Palestine because they are ‘controversial’” and “surveillance, over-policing or censoring of Palestinian expression” as examples of Anti-Palestinian Racism.

The OCDSB must be held accountable for its increasingly vile displays of Anti-Palestinian Racism which have caused an immense amount of harm for the Palestinian and Arab community and those who empathize with them.

That is why we must call for the following demands of the OCDSB:

1. Issue a public apology to the student and the entire Palestinian community in the OCDSB who have been victimized by this violation of human rights.

2. Commit to Board-wide education and training on Anti-Palestinian Racism, in consultation with Palestinian community members and organizations, for all OCDSB administration and staff as soon as possible.

Add your voice now by sending an email to OCDSB administration and executives to support this courageous student and all students who choose to use their voice to speak up for the marginalized.