Student suspended after reacting to allegedly being called N-word at school
Posted February 2, 2025 4:23 pm.
Last Updated February 2, 2025 5:35 pm.
A 13-year-old has been suspended from her school in the Saint-Laurent borough after “physically reacting” to allegedly being called the N-word by another student.
“There should be a no tolerance for this, period,” said Sade Clayton, mother of suspended student. “I’m hurting for my daughter. I’m hurting for the other black students in the school.”
Clayton said that her daughter heard another student calling out the N-word after school in the locker room. She asked him what he had said and he repeated the racial slur “to her face,” whereby she “slapped him, lightly.”

Her mother is denouncing the school, a part of the English Montreal School Board (EMSB), for its inaction on racism.
“I don’t condone what she did, what she did, it was a reaction to being called a racial slur,” said Clayton. “I know it also affected some of the other students who were there and it’s just hurtful.”
Her daughter spoke with CityNews about the incident, but preferred to remain anonymous.
“I feel upset and a bit frustrated because I have to be suspended and the boy that said the N-word doesn’t have to be suspended,” she said. “I guess for him it felt like it was funny but when it came to me it wasn’t funny at all because I’ve dealt with racism before.”

The letter of suspension from LaurenHill Academy says she will be suspended for one day and it cites the infraction as “violent behavior,” which Clayton contested.
“It doesn’t say why she was violent and I asked for that and I’m not getting that change basically, so this is a record that she has to live with,” said Clayton. “She didn’t just wake up and say after school today I’m going to hit somebody for no reason.”
With the help of the Center for Research-Action on Race relations–CRARR, Clayton will file a case with the Human Rights Commission. The demands include changes to the EMSB’s complaints handling system and mandatory training for teachers and staff on anti-black racism.

“The school doesn’t seem to understand that the effects of racism explicit or verbal, straight-to-your-face racism can be very devastating to the psychological and the physical safety of youth not to mention the dignity as well as the sense of integrity,” said Fo Niemi, executive director at CRARR. “The sense of being humiliated by being called the N-word in front of other students.”
The EMSB said they do not comment on disciplinary actions against students.
“The stance of the school board is that the N-word was used in an inappropriate conversation between two boys,” said Mike Cohen a spokesperson for the EMSB. “This young lady heard that she was offended, she was completely right to be offended and the way to deal with it is in a non-violent way… It is not to go and hit a child in the back of the head.”

“People will see as we roll out our programming on Monday, we probably do the most programming of any school board in the province on Black History and we’re very proud of that,” said Cohen.
Clayton claims that the school has no activities planned for Black History Month, citing the February calendar she received via email.

“They list the PED days, they list the activity day and the activity day is not Black History Month related,” said Clayton. “It is a winter activity day… the students had a choice to pick between different places that they can go to the movies to being ceramic café, nothing to do with black history.”
“I do not feel safe sending my child back to school and knowing that they’re not protecting in particular the black children at that school.”