A substitute teacher, put on home assignment for allegedly making racist remarks, will not be back inside a Toronto District School Board school, as the incident is investigated.
The incident in question, allegedly happened last Tuesday at Norman Cook Public School near St Clair and Danforth in Scarborough.
When the 11-year-old student, Isaiah asked the teacher for clairfication of an assignment, the man quipped back with "this means home sweet home, or for you in a dark alleyway like a crackhead."
The Toronto District School Board has told NEWSTALK 1010 that the teacher will not be called back during the course of the investigation and released the following statement on the case:
"We have been made aware of this troubling allegation and staff are actively investigating to determine what happened. In the meantime, this specific Occasional Teacher has been put on home assignment pending the outcome of the investigation. If the allegation is founded, it is completely unacceptable and goes against the considerable work the TDSB is doing to combat racism, bias and oppression. We are committed to ensuring every student feels valued everyday by the staff in our schools."
The boy's mother says there is a silver lining to this story in that, several other students in the class recognized how wrong the alleged comments were and urged Isaiah to report it to the principal.
"His friends turned to him and said, what was said to you was not okay." says Abigail Francis. "They went to the office and had Isaiah's back and they corroborated his story."
The teacher's name hasn't been released.