TORONTO \u2014 The Toronto Catholic District School Board says it has placed two high school teachers on leave following allegations they exchanged racist messages using a school social media page. <\/p>\n
Messages between the two James Cardinal McGuigan Catholic High School teachers were found on a student athletics Instagram account, according to advocacy group Parents of Black Children, and included a racist slur and an anti-Black meme.<\/p>\n
The group accused school officials of not taking immediate action after a student who had access to the Instagram account screenshotted the exchange and notified the school’s principal.<\/p>\n
The school board, however, said it moved quickly in placing the teachers on leave, and that support is available for students and staff who may be affected. <\/p>\n
“Matters involving students, particularly allegations of racism and other forms of discrimination, are addressed and investigated immediately,” the school board wrote in a statement. <\/p>\n
“In this case, the board acted swiftly and in alignment with this approach placed both staff members on leave.”<\/p>\n
Parents of Black Children is calling for the Ontario College of Teachers to investigate the incident, in addition to demands that the two teachers be removed from teaching duties.<\/p>\n
“This is not just about offensive language,” the group said. “It is about dignity, power and student safety.”<\/p>\n
The group also said students are afraid of academic repercussions if they formally complain to school officials. It is calling for students who speak out to be protected against retaliation.<\/p>\n
The school board said it has taken all possible actions to address the incident and that racism and discrimination are unacceptable and inconsistent with teaching standards. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kathryn Mannie, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The Toronto Catholic District School Board says it has placed two high school teachers on leave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-489164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}