A controversial photo shared on social media by an occasional teacher with the Peel District School Board is now the subject of an investigation.
The PDSB said it became aware of the photo on Sunday after a screenshot of the original Instagram photo surfaced on Twitter.
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The Instagram post shows a photo of a young child with braided hair next to a photo of a character from the 1996 movie Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.
Carla Pereira, a spokesperson with the Peel District School board, said in a statement the post “is simply unacceptable.”
“We were made aware of an inappropriate Instagram post made by one of our staff members when it was sent to the Peel District School Board Twitter account yesterday. As the post shared is considered anti-black racism, we became concerned as this behaviour is simply unacceptable,” the statement said.
As soon as the school board was made aware of the post, it reached out to the person who shared it to provide the name of the school.
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“We asked the individual who shared the post with us to provide us … with the name of the school so that we could follow up with the school’s superintendent of education. We received the school name quickly and provided the screen grab to the superintendent who began to investigate the matter yesterday,” the statement said.
The PDSB would not share the school or teacher who took the photo, but confirmed the teacher is an “occasional teacher” with the board and will now be assigned at home, which means she will not be able to pick up any absences for the board and cannot contact staff or students while she is home.