Woke Waterloo music teacher Niki Kazemzadeh took to Twitter just before school started this fall to name her picks for school trustee in October’s election.
In true teacher style, those she thought worthy of being elected got an official green checkmark and those with whom she had concerns got a red stop sign.
She told her followers her opinion is “informed” based on her experiences as a parent, educator and someone who spent the last school year watching every Waterloo region district school board (WRDSB) meeting and live tweeting about each one of them.
She claimed that while she felt the WRDSB had an “enormous amount of work” to continue to do to make schools “truly safe” for all students and staff, it is her opinion as a “white CIS-gender woman” that the important work has started.
She noted that she “firmly and unequivocally” supports gender-affirming language, anti-racist policies, non-carceral policies and approaching curriculum through an equity lens.
Non-carceral means no prison, or perhaps even consequences, for those who engage in violence within WRDSB schools.
No surprises so far.
Kazemzadeh, who blocked me on Twitter ages ago, regularly retweets attacks from other woke educators about those candidates who want to bring some common sense back to education.
She has also been on a kind of crusade to “Indigenize” music education in her elementary school classrooms.
It should come as no surprise that she has endorsed board chairman Scott Piatkowski, Jayne Herring and the other NDP incumbents who silenced Carolyn Burjoski and Mike Ramsay.
But here’s where she gets herself on shaky ground.
She said she’s concerned (and has raised concerns) about the number of candidates running for trustee who share “transphobic, homophobic and racist views.”
She claims that organizations like the FAIR Education Alliance, Blueprint for Canada and Parents as First Educators have endorsed them as ones who hold “racist, transphobic and homophobic views.”
She adds that these candidates “do NOT align” with board policies of making students feel “safe and seen” in board schools.
There’s that word “safe” again – one that suggests that these trustee candidates, simply for having a differing point of view, will cause students to be harmed, bullied, even treated with violence.
The progressives, sensing that many parents are on to them, are now manipulating public sentiment by trying to suggest an alternate point of view can cause safety issues.
Never mind that this teacher’s whole effort comes across as cyber-bullying. That’s quite fine.
Kazemzadeh not only indicates she won’t endorse them but proceeds to foolishly name the candidates she defames.
She names and shames black trustee Mike Ramsay, who became the target of a vexatious and secretive Code of Conduct complaint for merely disagreeing with the woke policies of WRDSB chairman Piatkowski and his NDP cabal on the board.
She names Cindy Watson, an incumbent, who has been aligned with Ramsay.
Kazamzedah also takes aim at candidate Ahmed Kassad, who emigrated from Egypt and whose platform focuses on academic excellence (and not woke politics.) This is yet more proof that as the white trustees on the WRDSB did with Mike Ramsay, the CIS-gendered woke types will easily target visible minorities if they don’t agree with their foolish policies.
A teacher should not even be posting her choices publicly on social media but they know their social justice unions will protect them.
The same WRDSB Code of Conduct that was used to silence Ramsay should apply to Kazemzadeh and her series of tweets.
It would appear that the woke teacher violated several items under Section 3 of the COC including 3.1.3 which says all members of the school community must “respect differences in people, their ideas and opinions” and 3.1.4 which says school staff must “treat one another with dignity and respect at all times and especially when there is disagreement.”
She also appears to have violated Section 3.1.6 which says all members of the school community should “respect the rights of others.”
But let’s be frank here.
Kazemzadeh will never be subjected to any discipline let alone the vicious witch hunt with which Piatkowski and his NDP cabal on the board targeted Ramsay.
In fact, she will likely be celebrated for her behaviour.
That is how steeped in woke politics the WRDSB has become.
