Brampton students walkout to protest PDSB’s transfer of popular Black principal 

In a display of student activism organized at Gordon Graydon Senior Public School, dozens of students walked out of their classrooms on June 6 in a show of support for their popular principal, Skye Bowen. She is being moved out of the school by the Peel District School Board without prior warning, and much earlier than many of the students expected. 

Students left the building chanting slogans like “bring Skye back” and held placards demanding the reinstatement of the former acting principal who, according to the PDSB, had been appointed to Gordon Graydon as of January on an interim basis to fill a staff vacancy. She is being transferred out of that role and will move into the role as Vice Principal at Chinguacousy Secondary School effective July 1. Her last day as acting principal for Gordon Graydon School will be the end of this month, June 30.

"Mrs. Bowen was appointed to an Acting Elementary Principal role in response to an operational need,” Mora Carruthers, the PDSB’s acting Manager of Communications, told The Pointer. “At the time, there were no available candidates in the Elementary Principal promotion pool, and while it is not typical practice to transfer a Secondary Vice-Principal into an Elementary Principal position, Mrs. Bowen stepped into the role and served with commitment and skill.”

Carruthers says that since Bowen’s arrival at the school, 18 new principals have been appointed through the board’s formal promotion process. Bowen was placed at the school as a “temporary fix” as there were no eligible candidates in the principal pool to fill the role. 

“As part of that process, permanent principal appointments are made from the established promotion pool. Mrs. Bowen's acting appointment was outside that process, and she will be returning to her previous Vice-Principal role at the secondary level…The transfer of Mrs. Bowen from Gordon Graydon was made in alignment with the Board’s established procedures for Principal and Vice-Principal appointments and transfers.”

For some students, the decision was unfair and shocked some in the school administration, students and parents, who were under the assumption Bowen would be at Gordon Graydon for at least two years.

"I am very angry about it, and amongst others, it is completely unjust," Jonathan Makuyana, a student of Gordon Graydon School and the student leader of the walkout told The Pointer during the protest. "She should stay at this school as planned originally, and she should stay for many more years to come.”

According to some students and parents The Pointer spoke with, they were under the impression Bowen would serve as principal at the school for at least two years. The PDSB did not provide any timeline for the initial decision to place Bowen at the school in an acting role.

Jonathan Makuyana, a student at Gordon Graydon Senior Public School in Brampton and the organizer of a recent student walkout, led a rally in support of former principal Skye Bowen.

(Muhammad Hamza/The Pointer)

Makuyana, whose mother gave permission to be spoken to, explained Bowen’s arrival as a Black principal was celebrated by many students who felt reflected by the most senior administrator in the school, in a board where about 85 percent of students across Peel’s public schools are non-white but whose senior administrators do not reflect the same diversity.  

"Everyone in the school is very mad about it. They think it's very unjust. It's very wrong, because Miss Bowen has had an irreversible effect on the school," Makuyana said. "It wasn't really a school that people wanted to go to, but over the past couple of months, she's transformed that school into a great place. She's given us programs, she's given us so many great things, and now they want to take that away from us, they want to take that away from her, the studentship that she's grown so close with, and we're not going to let that happen."

Makuyana said problems that hurt the learning environment had been ignored by the senior administration until Bowen’s arrival.

"There have been many examples of teachers being assaulted by students, and the teachers went to the former principals to complain, but the principals didn't do anything. And there were always fights, there was always unnecessary violence, unnecessary language going on inside the school. And it's been that way since former students have been here, since I've been here, until this year, when the turnaround began to happen because of Miss Bowen's powerful impact."

He told The Pointer that the PDSB did not communicate the reason for Bowen’s departure to the student body, and he was only informed about it through an announcement shown to staff.

"All I know is that she's being dismissed, and it's been such a very short time since she's arrived here, but everyone wants her to stay, and for very good reasons."

Melchisédek Gnahoré, another student at Gordon Graydon, said Bowen’s departure came as a complete surprise. 

“What I did not understand was the fact that after that, they (the PDSB) told us that she would be our new principal, and by new principal everybody obviously thought that she would be there for two years or more, like all principals do."

Bowen’s departure has parent advocates concerned that the school, which many feel has long been marginalized and ignored by the PDSB, will continue to decline under leadership that does not understand the diverse needs of the student population. 

Students at Gordon Graydon Senior Public School stage a walkout on Friday, June 6, holding placards in support of Skye Bowen, the acting principal, calling for her to stay.

(Muhammad Hamza/The Pointer)

Following a disturbing review of PDSB released in 2020 by the provincial education ministry, the board was stripped of its governance role which was taken over by a senior administrator appointed by the provincial government. The scathing review exposed a school board plagued by systemic discrimination, and a culture of anti-Black racism. Predominantly white leadership that did not reflect the student body had for decades ignored mounting problems, failed to hire and promote equitably while Peel’s demographic underwent rapid transformation and caused generational harm to racialized students.

The PDSB is currently operating under 27 directives handed down by the education ministry to eradicate its long standing culture of systemic discrimination. Even in recent years, white principles denigrated Jamaican parents and Muslim students. The board was forced to issue a broad apology to Black students.

Melisa Lanza, a representative of the school’s Parents Council, said Gordon Graydon had been mismanaged and poorly led, until Bowen turned things around in just five months after taking charge in January.

"When my children first started at Gordon Graydon Senior Public School in September, the school was a disaster. I hated the school," Lanza told The Pointer. "I complained multiple times. I said that to the principal, and the VP multiple times, the school was a bad school. It had no direction, they had no discipline. The kids didn't care. There was racism, violence, it was just a really, really bad school.”

Melisa Lanza, a representative of the Parent Council at Gordon Graydon Senior Public School, says Principal Skye Bowen’s removal is rooted in racial bias and political interference within the board.

(Supplied)

She credits Bowen with bringing a fresh, passionate approach to education. 

“It's like the (former) principal didn't care anymore. And then when Miss Bowen came in, in January; she promised that she was going to turn things around. And you could see that she really cared.” She said the turnaround started at the very bottom, all the way to the top. 

“In the five months that she's been there, this is a completely different school. The kids care. Racism is gone. There's no fights, there's no vandalism. There's a sense of community, there's hope, there's joy, there's clubs, there's mentorship, it's a good school now, and she only did that in five months, so imagine if she was given four years, what she could accomplish for our kids at this school."

Makuyana said that Bowen, apart from her role as a principal, was helping develop students into future leaders by boosting their confidence and helping them explore their potential across diverse areas through her volunteer organization.  

"Her and her organization, One Voice, One Team, which her husband runs, they've been all around the school, and they've made a gigantic impact," he said. "I feel more confident in myself and my abilities to speak to the public…Some people found themselves more confident as artists, as athletes, and as speakers, and because of that, she is really transforming us, not just telling us to be leaders, but showing us how to be leaders and giving us the tools that we need to become leaders. So I believe that Miss Bowen's impact is truly immeasurable, and her individual impact on myself, I believe that's truly been changed because of her, and I truly believe that now I can go even farther than what I believed I could originally go to, and many others believe the same."

The PDSB has a long history of resisting change that would eliminate practices that do harm to students. An ongoing lawsuit by the board’s former equity director, Poleen Grewal, outlines disturbing allegations and evidence against the board’s senior administration and Director Rashmi Swarup. 

PDSB has told The Pointer it will not comment on the allegations and evidence in the lawsuit.

Lanza says the board’s elected trustees, including Chair David Green, need to do more to connect with students to understand their needs. 

She claims nepotism has been rampant and accused the board of removing Bowen to make way for someone who isn’t as deserving. She believes the PDSB "made the decision to just move the VP and the principal somewhere else” so others more closely connected to leadership can be appointed.

Lanza is trying to use her position to fight the decision.

"I've sent two strongly worded emails to both David Green, Paul De Silva (who took over as head of equity after Grewal was fired in 2023), (Brampton Mayor) Patrick Brown. I've sent emails…I have not heard back anything. I've been ignored." 

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