TORONTO – A Toronto-area school trustee under fire for months for using a racial slur about a black parent has resigned.
In a tearful video, Nancy Elgie, 82, says she wants to allow a process of healing, learning and restoration to begin for the York Region School Board and community.
“I made a terrible mistake,” Elgie says in the 10-minute video, posted on YouTube.
Elgie says the incident occurred last November while she was having a private conversation with another trustee.
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She says she was trying to refer to a parent featured in media stories about children being called a hurtful racist word.
“In trying to explain that, the words came out horribly wrong,” Elgie says. “I was mortified. I apologized immediately.”
However, Elgie said, someone overheard the remark – but not the apology – and filed a complaint.
“I reiterate that heartfelt apology,” she says in the video. “I know how hurtful that word is – even if used inadvertently – and I am truly sorry for the pain my words have caused.”
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Until now, Elgie and her family had resisted calls for her to step down – including one from the province’s education minister. They had suggested that a bad fall that caused a head injury had somehow contributed to what had happened.
In her video, Elgie said she suffered a concussion and that a common symptom included mixing up words.
Nevertheless, she said, her injury might explain but not excuse what she said.
“I used a hurtful word – one that is directly at odds with my values,” she says in the video.
READ MORE: Parents demand resignation of York district school trustee for uttering racial slur
The 17-year trustee says her long refusal to step aside was never about protecting her position but that she felt it would send the wrong message of punishment without restoration. She said she has now decided the best thing to serve the people of Georgina, Ont., and the board was to step down.
She said she hoped that would enable a process of healing and restoration to begin.
“I am quite willing to be involved in that process, if it would be helpful, though it will not be as a trustee.”