School district forced to explain after speculation it told teachers the word ‘family’ is racist

There’s a lot of drama associated with this “family.”

After a year and a half of speculation that teachers in Canada’s Waterloo Region District, just outside of Toronto, were being taught the word “family” is racist, its school board was forced to come clean this month.

The controversy began in November 2023, when the district offered a professional development presentation titled “Dismantling Whiteness at W-O: Words Matter,” according to the CBC.

Reports earlier this month on the training included screen grabs from the presentation highlighting the word “family,” followed by an explanation claiming the word is “identified as harmful by our racialized students” and “values positions of (male) authority and hierarchy.”

After the training session came to light, the head of the school board was forced to acknowledge the

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