A group of Prince George students have created and will be leading a live online anti-racism lesson which will be viewed in classrooms across the district and province.
The students are from the District Student Advisory Council (DSAC) for School District 57 who have been working for the last few years on tackling racism in the school district.
In March 2022, DSAC premiered a four-part anti-racism video series called Raising the B.A.R. which featured interviews with past and present students regarding their experiences with racism in schools.
Now these students will be leading an online event to be broadcast across the district, province, and beyond where they can channel their knowledge and experiences into an anti-racism dialogue that any classroom can join.
“We decided to do a live event because the original intent of the films was to reach classrooms and to reach students,” said DSAC lead and vice-principal of Indigenous education Katie Marren.
“We thought what's the best way to get into classrooms? So, we decided we would actually design a lesson and a guided discussion that we could stream into classrooms and people could just click on a link.”
Marren said the students have presented to many adults including principals and vice-principals, but so far had only a few opportunities to directly speak to other students.
One of those opportunities was a visit to Valemount Secondary School where they presented their films to students from grades eight to 12.
“Kids are used to adults leading learning but when you actually allow students to guide discussions, particularly conversations that are can be really difficult and can have some tension around it - the students just thrive,” said Marren.
“They asked great questions. They were vulnerable. They were okay to admit when they didn't know something because they were only admitting it to their peers.”
The event is free to watch and will take place on Thursday, June 9 at 10:15 a.m. which is block B for secondary schools.
The lesson will include the films as well as guided questions and discussions led by the students.
Marren said she’s already had interest from classrooms in SD57, as well as other districts and people from the Ministry of Education, but the live event will also be open to the general public.
“I suspect we'll have a lot participating in this learning,” said Marren. “This is learning for students for teachers. For parents for community members. Everyone can benefit from this. We designed it for students, but it's accessible to all.”
She also hopes this work will inspire other district who lead similar student councils to see what’s possible and tap into the invaluable resources of what kids already know.
“Like we have this belief in Education that kids don't bring knowledge -that we have to infuse them with knowledge - but they have so much knowledge of their own. How do we bring that out and use it to make change?”
Marren said DSAC’s anti-racism work will continue to inform the students as they continue to be a voice for student advocacy and agency.
For example, Marren said DSAC is currently interviewing other students in the district to learn more about their needs.
“They understand that they themselves have privilege, right? They come from good families. They are leadership students, and they typically get good grades. They understand that they don't represent all of our community and that in order for us to make better change we have to actually ask students who are on the margin,” explained Marren.
“They are gathering voice from those students who haven't had the same opportunities as them.”
DSAC recently presented their work to the Board of Education at its regular public meeting, which was met with a standing ovation.
“In my closing statement to the Board regarding DSAC said, this group has set an expectation that students are part of conversations where decisions are made,” added Marren.
“I have asked the board to honour that set of expectations and the students will also demand that.”
