A Grade 7 student, along with peers and parents, protested outside her Langley, B.C., elementary school amid what they say is the failure of officials to tackle racism.
Amy McGregor, 12, told Global News she has been called the N-word and been asked to give other students the N-pass — a green light to use the slur — since the start of the school year.
She said she’s faced other racist taunts as well.
“Just like name calling, calling me ramen hair, saying I have a big forehead,” she said.
“It did kind of hurt me a little bit. They don’t really understand those things.”
Amy said despite telling the students no, the jokes and bullying continued.
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Her father, Niven McGregor, helped lead a protest on Monday outside of Dorothy Peacock Elementary.
Niven said despite contacts with the school in recent months, the harassment hasn’t stopped.
“It has actually grown, there is more boys doing it,” he said.
“(The school principal) was well aware of things happening late November and early December as well. That gave me the impression they were well aware of racial issues and incidents, but there was no feedback (to parents).”
In a statement, the Langley School District said the school and district staff met with parents last week and into the weekend and will “continue to look into the matter.”
Niven, who hails from South Africa, said he feels that the school’s response has not lived up to the seriousness of the problem.
“When it comes to racism, you have to nip it in the bud and take a zero-tolerance approach — racism is not something that is new, so we can’t wait on new policies to address it,” he said.
“Because even if the kids don’t understand the gravity of what is happening to them, because they don’t know the history of how hateful and evil racism is.”
Amy said she was the target of a racial slur as recently as last Monday, and that she wanted to speak out to ensure people knew what was happening.
“I don’t want things like this to kind of slide away and not be talked about,” she said.
Her father agreed, and said he hopes both the school and the wider Langley community take the issue seriously.
“They should see this protest as a collective effort to send a clear message to the public, because these kids are representative of the community,” he said.
“It’s not just the school’s responsibility to educate the kids, but ours too.”
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