The student council at Holy Cross Secondary School has issued an apology after a parent made a complaint about a Grade 9 student photographed at a student-run event in what she is calling blackface.
Patricia Lynn Stokes, a mother of a teen who attends Holy Cross, posted the photo to Facebook and also sent the photo to Global Kingston, complaining that students at the school have an issue with racism and bullying.
It’s also important to note that Stokes contacted Global News and posted her Facebook post before news broke Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau’s recent brownface and blackface scandal.
The picture was captured last week at a Grade 9 orientation event and then used this past Tuesday on the student council’s Instagram.
On Wednesday, the council then issued an apology, saying a “racially insensitive depiction was posted,” and that the image depicted behaviour the council “did not condone.”
According to Jessica Salmon, communications officer for the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board, paint was dumped over this particular student’s head and he made the “unfortunate decision” to rub it in.
Michael Faught, principal at Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School, says the student was asked to wash the paint off the day of the orientation, but not before photos were taken.
Faught also said this particular orientation event involves paint, glitter and slip and slides, with the understanding that students will be in contact with paint.
Photos from the event show other students splattered with paint, but the student accused of dressing in blackface is the only one covered from head to toe in black paint.
According to several students at the high school, news of this incident has spread throughout the student body.
“I don’t condone it, the black face, but I think it’s just blown out of proportion,” said Hayden Whitmore, a Grade 12 student at Holy Cross.
WATCH: ‘I never should have done it’: Trudeau apologizes again after blackface video emerges
Whitmore says that the orientation event is meant to bring students together, not to create divisions, and he hopes the school will be able to continue the event.
“It’s a better way to meet new people. I was new to Catholic School and that’s where I met my best friend at the time,” he said. “I just made friends and I’m still friends with them today.”
Faught says he wants to use this incident as a way to open up discussions about cultural awareness with his teen students.
“Sometimes mistakes are going to be made and we learn from those and we fix them and we move forward in a positive direction,” Faught said.
“I think part of our ongoing responsibility is to educate the young adults in this building in all areas, including developing cultural competencies and building social awareness.”