A woman was recorded telling a teenager to go back to her country during a protest outside of the Southern Okanagan Secondary School.
Image Credit: TikTok/Kai.Allen
February 14, 2022 - 12:20 PM
Racist remarks were hurtled at an Oliver high school student late last week during an anti-COVID mandate rally outside of the school.
A video circulating on social media shows a woman and other protestors standing outside of Southern Okanagan Secondary School on Friday, Feb. 11.
A confrontation ensues between a woman and a female Punjabi teenager, before the woman tells her, "I deserve to be in this country, do you?" and says she should go back to her country.
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Video Credit: The Pada Pada
The Pada Pada
Kai Allen, who uses the pronouns they/them, is friends with the teen. The Grade 11 student said they decided to share the video to show that racism here is still prevalent here in Canada.
“It’s not in the past, it’s not something that is in the history books,” Allen said.
They watched the protestors pull up and stand near the school’s pick-up location. Allen said they engaged with the protestors.
“There was no ill intention with it, it wasn’t to attack them as people, it was more like ‘what are you people doing in front of the school?” Allen said.
The woman then approached them and was very aggressive, they said.
Allen thinks their friend was targeted because of the colour of her skin. “We’re all quite shaken up, going back to school was definitely nerve wracking,” they said.
They also said white privilege is very prevalent in this interaction. Her friend recording the video is Palestinian and Cree but has lighter skin and was overlooked by the protestor.
“That lady was not saying anything towards her, she was not targeting her… we often overlook our privilege as white people simply because we don’t have to… deal with that,” Allen said.
But they’re glad the video has gotten so much attention and although her friend doesn’t want to be named, she’s speaking for them, they said.
Principal Tracy Harrington said in a statement to parents the convoy protestors assembled on the road in front of the high school and the school district was not aware this was going to happen.
“Unfortunately, a few of our students were deeply affected by the words of one of the protestors. School administrators were present to de-escalate the confrontation and move students away from the situation… the protestors left shortly thereafter,” she said in the statement.
Harrington said a few of the protestors were “inappropriate and aggressive” and neither the school nor the district condones their actions.
She asked students to avoid protestors and to not engage with them. School district No. 53 also doesn't condone the protests, saying in a statement they shouldn't target children and youth.
Sgt. Don Wrigglesworth with the Oliver RCMP said police were not called to the protest but an officer did attend and spoke with protestors, ensuring they remained off of school property.
At the time, things appeared to be calm and the protestors were compliant. The RCMP was not aware there was any incident until the following day.
“(The protest) appeared to be short-lived but was very unsettling. Any time adults chose to bring their agenda, whether it’s racism, which it very much seemed to be in this case, to students and to children and engage in a manner that appears to have happened, it’s embarrassing,” he said.
Wrigglesworth called the incident “a racist rant” and police are investigating.
“If there are adults that are on the demonstrating side that said ‘well these kids were yelling at us,’ they’re kids and it’s their school. It’s off-limits,” he said.
“We need to make sure schools are a safe place for kids,” he said, adding officers went to the school and have been working with school administrators.
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