In North American elementary and high-schools, Black and Indigenous students are disciplined through suspension and expulsion more often than their peers. These same groups of students are also more often exposed to adversity and trauma such as community violence, racism and inequity.
As a social worker for many years in the Greater Toronto Area and Vancouver, in children’s mental health, child protection, school social work and in classrooms for students who have been suspended or expelled, I have seen firsthand the high level of exposure to adversity these students experience.
