A shower of passionately negative e-mails flooded the inboxes of Toronto school board trustees following the decision to create an Afrocentric school in Canada’s largest city, according to documents obtained under access to information laws.
The response was raw, reflective and filled with rage.
A woman who grew up in racially segregated Alabama and nearly got expelled from college for drinking out of “coloured only” water fountains said she was crestfallen when she learned of the school board’s decision to go ahead with she believes is a racially exclusive school.
“I am grieved to see Toronto try to turn back the clock to those ignominious times of separation,” wrote Ellen Nichols, who is white and now lives in Toronto.
She was one of 60 people who wrote the school board in January and February of this year. Only five of the e-mails were in favour of the board’s decision. The e-mails were obtained after a request made under Toronto’s access to information law.
