Vancouver Island teacher suspended after segregating class by race

A northern Vancouver Island teacher has been handed an additional suspension of one day after she segregated students by race during a gym class earlier this year.

The BC Commissioner for Teacher Regulation says it happened in February of this year, during Black History month, when the Campbell River teacher was trying to give a lesson about segregation.

According to the board, after listening to an overheard announcement about the history of Rosemary Brown, the first Black woman elected to a Canadian Legislature, Diana Marie Lontayao asked her Grade 2 students if they knew what segregation meant.

“When the students did not seem to understand, Lontayao decided to engage in a spontaneous exercise to explain segregation to the class,” the commissioner’s ruling said. “Lontayao asked a student to cordon off a small corner of the gym with cones. She then addressed her class, saying ‘all the brown kids, you go into that corner.'”

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One noodle was given to the “visible minority” children to play tag with, while multiple noodles were given to the other group of students. Students were also told by Lontayao that the two groups could not play or talk to each other.

After a while, the commissioner says Lontayao blew a whistle for a water break, and “announced that the children in the majority group were entitled to water first and that those students playing in the corner had to wait.”

One student, who was part of the group in the corner, began to cry, the commissioner says. The teacher explained how “unfair it was” that in the past, they would not have been allowed to play together because of their race, and that it’s because of the efforts of people like Brown that they could play and learn together.

The commissioner says Lontayao apologized to the student who was brought to tears and stopped the activity.

The Campbell River School District suspended Lontayao for 20 days in March without pay and required her to take anti-racism training through the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. She was also “reassigned” within the district.

The commissioner has handed the teacher a further one-day suspension, as it found Lontayao “failed to treat student[s] with dignity and respect and did not show sufficient care for their mental and emotional wellbeing.”