Students as young as eight compelled to attend political protest ‘field trip’

Emails to parents at ALPHA Alternative Junior schools said grade 3-6 students would attend 'in solidarity'

Published Sep 21, 2024  •  2 minute read

Some parents of TDSB middle school students are angered after learning their kids participated in a "field trip" to a political protest downtown that devolved into an anti-Israel demonstration on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. Photo by Supplied

Children as young as eight were compelled to take part in last week’s so-called ‘field trip’ to a political demonstration, emails shared with the Toronto Sun suggest.

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And while statements made Friday by acting TDSB board chair Neethan Shan described the contentious excursion as a purely “educational experience,” parents at ALPHA Alternative Junior School were told students from grades 3 to 6 would instead be standing “in solidarity” with Grassy Narrows First Nation, and even marched carrying signs they made themselves.

A weekly update emailed to parents at the TDSB-operated school near Spadina Ave. and Adelaide St. West listed an afternoon excursion on Wednesday to Grange Park to “join the event in support of Mercury Justice for the Grassy Narrows Community.”

A copy of that email was obtained by the Sun.

An excerpt from an email sent home to parents of ALPHA Alternative Junior School in downtown Toronto Photo by Screenshot

The mother of an ALPHA student, who asked the Sun withhold her name, reacted with disgust upon learning of the ‘field trip.’

“An eight-year-old is not old enough to understand this issue,” she said.

“I really have a problem with indoctrinating children.”

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It didn’t take long for the demonstration to turn into an anti-Israel rally, with organizers leading attendees, including students, in a number of anti-Israel chants.

Independent sources told the Sun that some students came home from the rally with “Zionism Kills” stickers, reportedly handed out by organizers and some TDSB teachers.

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Last week, the Toronto Sun reported on outrage sparked after several Toronto middle schools held ‘field trips’ for students to attend last week’s protest, seeking justice for the northern Ontario First Nation dealing with a decades-old water contamination crisis.

Concern among parents at one middle school prompted an email home stressing students would only “observe” the rally, as part of the TDSB’s social justice curriculum.

But photos, videos and eyewitness accounts depict students actively taking part in the rally.

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The email from ALPHA, however, had no such allusions.

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“This trip to the Grange Park is in solidarity with the Grassy Narrows Community in their fight for justice over mercury poisoning,” the email read, making no mention of students observing or the trip’s purported educational value.

The email says the trip is for the school’s “downstairs” students, which parents told the Sun refers to children in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6.

The email also asked parents to dress their kids in blue shirts.

On Friday, the Toronto Sun reported that students at one city middle school were told to wear blue shirts in order to mark them as “colonizers.”

Photos from the event, posted on a parents-only photo gallery viewed by the Sun, show young children marching alongside adults in the demonstration, many of them holding protest signs the students clearly made themselves.

In his statement Friday, Shan apologized “for the harm that some students may have experienced” and promised a review of the board’s field trip policy.

An earlier statement confirmed students “should not be participating in organized protests as part of a field trip.”

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