Parents in Toronto expressed shock after receiving an email from an elementary school principal that contained the flag of the Islamic State terrorist group.
The October 2022 email was sent by Principal Darlene Jones of Dr Rita Cox – Kina Minogok Public School (renamed from Queen Victoria Elementary) to celebrate the start of Somali Heritage Month and Islamic Heritage Month and contained the black and white Islamic State flag, shocking many of the 700 families of children who received the email.
One of the parents, May Woo, spoke to broadcaster CTV, saying: “If within an inner-city school we can have something like the ISIS flag sent out for Islamic Heritage month, what else (inside the school) is happening?”
According to Woo, another parent, a Muslim mother, confided in her after the Islamic State flag email, saying: “I don’t feel that my children are safe here,” allegedly adding that “every time I drop them off [at school] I pray that they’re going to be okay.”
Principal Jones later apologised in a follow-up email to parents saying she “would like to apologize to all who were harmed by the image I sent last week to celebrate Islamic Heritage Month. The image was offensive and harmful and does not represent Islam.”
Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Executive Director of Communications Ryan Bird also commented on the email, saying: “it’s not exactly clear how that may have happened. We don’t believe there was any ill intent there. But the fact is it should never have happened and gone out, and that’s why she has apologized.”
The incident is just the latest controversy in the Ontario school system in recent months, coming after a teacher in Oakville made headlines after being photographed wearing giant prosthetic breasts to school after coming out as transgender.
Earlier this week, another Ontario teacher in the Toronto Catholic District School Board openly bragged on social media about having a prayer space in his class containing a transgender icon of Jesus.