Murdoch MacKay students suspended over racist images

Several Transcona-area students were suspended today for their roles in what’s been called a hate-crime incident.

Dennis Pottage, superintendent of the River East Transcona School Division, said the five students in the photo are Grade 12 students from Murdoch MacKay Collegiate. The division contacted four of the students, and their parents, earlier today and they were formally suspended.

The fifth student in the photo was not in class today, he said, and officials have not been able to contact him or his parents.

The photo shows the five boys smiling as they’re kneeling behind an SUV parked in front of the Transcona-area high school. Drawn into the dust of the SUV’s tailgate window are numerous swastikas and several anti-Semitic and racist phrases.

"In talking to the four we’ve been in contact with, they are very remorseful of their actions," Pottage said. "I don’t believe they understood the significance of their actions but the bottom line is it’s totally inappropriate and we have to respond that way."

Pottage said he doesn’t know which student drew the images and phrases in the vehicle’s window but added he believes they are collectively responsible for the images.

"They just didn’t stumble across and find" the images drawn on the vehicle’s windows, he said. "But I don’t know who wrote it, or whether one wrote it or they all participated."

Pottage said Winnipeg Police have been informed and the division is continuing its investigation.

A Winnipeg Police Service spokesman said an investigation has been initiated but offered no other details.

Pottage said school officials didn’t know where the fifth student was and had no explanation for his absence from school.

Pottage would not say how long the students will be suspended from school but added that division officials will work with them.

"They certainly will undergo a significant intervention."

The photo came from the Facebook page of one of the students. The division had received a smaller, cropped, screen-shot version of the photo earlier but was unable to discern any details. A high-quality version of the photo was provided to the division Monday, which allowed officials to identify the students.

It’s not certain when the photo was taken. There is no snow visible in the photo. One of the boys is wearing shorts, and the other boys are wearing T-shirts and jeans and one of them is wearing a hoodie. Pottage said he was told the photo was posted on the student’s Facebook page sometime in December.

A local official with B’nai Brith Canada said the boys should be charged with a hate crime, adding education officials have to recognize there is a problem with hate crimes in their schools.

Alan Yusim, regional director of B’nai Brith Canada, said this is another in a long line of hate crime incidents involving students at Winnipeg schools, adding drastic changes must be implemented to deal with hate crimes within the school system.

"My guess is there aren’t any Jewish students at (Murdoch MacKay Collegiate) and it’s likely none of these students know a Jewish person," Yusim said.

Yusim said school divisions have to acknowledge they are doing a poor job dealing with hate crime in classrooms, adding course material has to be added to deal with this.

"School divisions have let everyone down," Yusim said. "We need a values-based curriculum that incorporates anti-hate training right from Day One."

Pottage said that when the investigation is completed, officials will consider all measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

School officials strive to create an environment at schools where everyone feels safe and secure, Pottage said, adding what the five Murdoch MacKay students did was totally unacceptable.

"People need to understand that this is not acceptable. The public is outraged by that and so they should be. That in itself is a learning experience for all the students.

"We want these (five) students to learn from this unfortunate incident -- in fact we want all our students to learn that these things are serious, that we take them seriously, and that they are significant and there are consequences to that," Pottage said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca