Chelsey St. Pierre – The Suburban LJI Reporter
A group of parents from Westpark Elementary School in DDO contacted The Suburban because they were upset after receiving a letter on October 17 from the school’s principal stating that the school would be raising funds for the Red Crescent, a Red Cross associated organization which serves Muslim countries.
According to Westpark principal Diana Martire’s account, only a few parents expressed that they experienced a “tiny bit of controversy”. When asked why the Red Cresent was chosen as a sole beneficiary, Martire told The Suburban that according to her research, the Red Crescent seemed to fit the idea presented by parents at the previous school governing board meeting where the concept of fundraising was brought up as part of a “Help for Hurt” initiative. “We felt like the decision was neutral. As it turns out, it is not as neutral as we thought.” The “we” referred to by Martire in her statement is unknown as it was not the governing board.
Parent sources — confirmed by Martire — said that the governing board was never consulted about the Red Crescent, rather a discussion took place regarding the possibility of hosting a series of fundraisers called “Help for Hurt” for a number of charities. The charities the governing board decided on were the Magen David Adom and Federation CJA emergency funds as the meeting was held on October 10th, soon after the Oct.7 attack on Israel.
According to the letter, the fundraiser was intended “to provide humanitarian assistance for people affected by the ongoing and escalating October 2023 crisis.”The parents — who wish to remain anonymous — took issue with the fact that the Red Shield of David — that is also associated with the Red Cross but which serves Israel — was not included in the planned fundraising activity which was slated to take place on Friday October 20th, while others felt that fundraising of that nature should not take place at all in a public elementary school setting.
They also expressed disagreement with the decision to involve school children in a fundraiser which allows only those who participate in raising funds to “dress down” given the nature of the fundraiser, while others whose families did not wish to donate would have to wear the school colours like any other day and be potentially targeted.
Speaking with The Suburban on condition of anonymity in order to protect the identity of the minors involved, some of the parents who did not wish to send funds via the Red Crescent said that they were concerned that their children were going to be singled out as a result of the school-wide activity and that the position they have taken in regards to the brutal Hamas attack would forcibly be exposed by their child’s elementary school and send mixed messages to their children.
Following some parents complaints, a second email was sent out on October 19, again by the principal, stating that the school would be having a “dress down” day the following day, but that no fundraising would take place.
When parents received the email late evening on October 17th, it came as a shock that the governing board approved charities were dropped and a new charity was chosen without approval. Some parents say that the possibility of approving additional fundraisers was not the issue, rather that the approved organization was missing and that no consultation was made in selecting another.
According to the policy at Westpark, the administration can make changes to a governing board decision only after calling a special meeting which was not done. Draft minutes are normally released as public information shortly after meetings take place and reviewed at the following meeting with updates to follow as necessary. The minutes from this meeting were not released.
The “Help for Hurt” logo was created on October 19 and according to the initial letter sent by Martire to parents, the Red Crescent fundraiser was scheduled to be the first of an intended series similar in nature to previous dress down days. Parents said that dress down days have been ongoing at Westpark for six years supporting a number of charities without the condition of donation where all students were permitted to dress down.
The school had launched fundraisers in the past for charities such as The Cure Foundation last spring where it raised over $4,000 to support breast cancer patients.At the launch of ‘Help for Hurt’ via the principal’s e-mail, it was specified that the “privilege to dress-down” was allowable for “the cost of a donation”.
“Help for Hurt was created to fundraise for issues of importance to the community. For example we have three students with diabetes so one of the ‘Help for Hurt’ days was intended to be allocated for a foundation which would help with diabetes research,” Martire said to The Suburban. “We are all connected in some way, you don’t need to be from Palestine or Gaza to understand hurt. As a public school, we need to respond to those affected by hurts in the world.”
Martire maintains that she and her staff members value neutrality. “We are always looking for ways to help. Our intentions were good.”
LBPSB spokesperson Darren Becker told The Suburban that the school board was not aware of the fundraiser. “We don’t know about every bake sale or every little thing,” while he also acknowledged that “this is not a little thing.”
According to Becker the LPBSB does not have a policy for fundraising. “These decisions are usually made at the school level and/or governing board level.” n