Allegations of Bullying, Racism and ‘Randomly Getting Punched’ at School

For much of her high school years in the Cariboo-Chilcotin School District, a student from Williams Lake says she dealt with bullying and threats.

“Walking around the hallways was always scary. Even walking to my car in the parking lot, I was always worried that something would happen,” said the student, whose name The Tyee is withholding to protect her privacy.

“I was very depressed, very low energy. The only thing I was capable of doing was my homework.”

The student alleges bullying, physical threats and being provoked into engaging in a fight at school, an incident that was recorded on video.

In a video shared with The Tyee, a hand can be seen holding a smartphone that plays a recording of a fight between two students. A man’s voice calls one of the students a “little bitch.”

While the speaker is not visible on video, the student and her father say it is the voice of the other student’s father, who is also a teacher at the school. They allege that the teacher also shared the video of the fight with people outside the school community.

Both the student and her father reported this incident to the school’s principal, who in turn brought it to the district superintendent.

A year and a half later, the teacher and his child are still at the school. The student who alleges the bullying is not.

Instead, her parents made the difficult decision to send their daughter, now in Grade 12, 600 kilometres away from their home to attend school in Vancouver. The Cariboo-Chilcotin School District failed to respond adequately to the incidents, George Hobi, the student’s father, told The Tyee.

“Nothing came out of it,” Hobi said, adding he isn’t sure the other teen faced any direct consequences from the school. Hobi said he appealed to the district and later to B.C.’s superintendent of appeals, a provincial-level position appointed by the Education Ministry, over the decision to allow the other student to remain at their school.

The superintendent of appeals determined that Hobi could not appeal a decision made about another student. It found that, because his daughter was no longer enrolled in the Cariboo-Chilcotin School District, the issue was resolved.

Hobi said he worries about his daughter, who was experiencing suicidal ideation before she moved away.

He is not alone in his concerns.

A local First Nation and a parents’ group have joined forces to call for a thorough investigation into allegations of pervasive racism and bullying in Cariboo-Chilcotin, also known as School District 27, which is in B.C.’s central Interior.

Community members The Tyee spoke with said they are concerned with discrimination and violence in classrooms and the school system generally. They say students as well as teachers and support workers have been targeted by racism and bullying.

Staff and students are leaving the district or not attending school, they say, adding that they believe a culture of fear is preventing teachers from speaking publicly about their concerns.

Hobi and Melissa Coates, a representative on the district parent advisory council who won a seat as school district trustee in a June 7 byelection, started the grassroots Concerned Parents and Caregivers of Williams Lake group in early 2024 in response to what they described as an inadequate response to their children being bullied in school.

“My own child just randomly gets punched in the halls by people he doesn’t even know,” said Coates, adding other Grade 7 students have told parents about wanting to bring knives to school to defend themselves from physical attacks.

“There were no real consequences for students; they would just come back to class an hour later after punching a kid,” Coates said.

Concerned Parents showed The Tyee an Instagram account they say shares videos of students assaulting each other in the district, Coates added. The most recent post is from November 2024. It’s unclear when the videos were recorded.

Coates said she’s been told stories of racism in the district, too.

“Teachers had made comments to other students that when their parent was late picking them up, ‘perhaps they had gone to the residential school,’” Coates said. She added that the majority of bullying is happening in the district’s middle and secondary schools.

Parents have tried to address the issue at the individual school level, as well as at the district level where they spoke directly to trustees during a board meeting on June 25, 2024. Hobi also addressed the board as a delegate at a January board meeting.

But they and members of the Esk’etemc of the Secwépemc Nation say efforts to put the issue on a school board meeting agenda have been rebuffed. Which is why they are also calling for an Education Ministry investigation.

“We feel like unless they dig in deep, they’re not going to see the whole expanse of the problem,” said Coates. “And if they don’t do that, how could you find appropriate solutions?”

Education Minister Lisa Beare and representatives from School District 27 declined The Tyee’s interview requests for this story, instead providing written statements.

In response to questions about the specific allegations of bullying from Hobi’s daughter, School District 27 superintendent Cheryl Lenardon said appropriate processes were followed by both the school district and “third-party decision-making bodies” reviewing the complaints.

“It’s been lengthy and thorough,” she said, adding that “the evidence does not support the assertion by the student that bullying was reported to the school but nothing was done.”

Lenardon declined to provide details about the investigation, saying processes can vary by complaint. She said bullying is something the school district proactively addresses through training and supports for students, families and staff.

“It’s not just about preventing bullying or dealing with bullying if it happens. It’s about creating school environments that are inclusive and kind,” she said.

Jessica Hill, president of the Cariboo-Chilcotin Teachers’ Association, told The Tyee that a survey of teachers showed they did not, on the whole, feel impacted by bullying in the district. Hill said the survey showed “a bit of a decline” in members who felt supported by the community, but no noticeable decline in being respected and supported by parents, colleagues and administration.

Esk’etemc have been ‘trying to get action from the ministry for years’

Last fall Concerned Parents and Caregivers of Williams Lake, which has over 400 members on its Facebook group, began collaborating with Esk’etemc in an effort to force a district discussion on bullying and racism.

Esk’etemc is one of 11 First Nations with children in district schools; one-third of students in the district are Indigenous.

Kúkpi7 Fred Robbins, Esk’etemc Chief, told The Tyee that the nation has been trying to get action from the ministry for years, including several meetings with previous education minister Rachna Singh.

He said the concerns go back several years to when a teacher from the nation, a Secwépemc speaker who taught the language and other traditions in the classroom, felt marginalized within the system.

“She was being discriminated against by other teachers simply because she didn't have a teaching degree,” Robbins said. When the teacher tried to raise her concerns with the former school district superintendent, Robbins said, she “was basically forced into taking early retirement.”

“As it stands, I believe we have a French teacher teaching our language to our students,” he said.

The district did not answer The Tyee’s question about whether a French teacher was employed to teach the Secwépemc language in the district.

Robbins told The Tyee “there are some incredible people who do their jobs well and offer safety and support” to students within the school district.

But he said teachers, support staff and students have all reported racism and bullying that are going unaddressed.

Robbins told The Tyee that at least half a dozen Esk’etemc teens refuse to return to school.

“There’s nowhere they can turn. There’s no available avenue for them to lodge a complaint unless they go to the school board,” he said.

“It’s not just First Nations children that are suffering. It's all children, and every child matters. It doesn't matter the colour of your skin.”

In early May, following an early April protest outside of the school district office by Concerned Parents and Caregivers of Williams Lake and Esk’etemc community members, Robbins, along with the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and Concerned Parents members, met virtually with the education minister. The online meeting was limited to a half-hour, he said.

Union of BC Indian Chiefs Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said he felt the minister heard their concerns and that he remains hopeful for an in-person meeting. The Esk’etemc First Nation wants Minister Beare to visit in person and hear the community’s concerns.

“They expressed a measure of empathy in regard to the situation,” said Phillip, who grew up in Quesnel, an hour north of Williams Lake. “I know what racism is. I know what it feels like. I know how it really undermines your sense of value and worth.

“Although it manifests itself in the schoolyard, it has much deeper roots and is more widespread. Consequently, it takes all of us to be able to deal with it.”

In a statement provided by the ministry, Beare acknowledged the online meeting with Robbins and Phillip on May 13.

“We agreed there is work to do in the district to rebuild trust and create a safe and welcoming environment for all students. Strong partnerships between districts and communities are essential to student success,” Beare said in a statement.

Ministry staff, the statement continued, had been directed to “meet regularly with the school district, the community, and right holders” and take immediate action to implement a school community culture and climate review undertaken by Safer Schools Together at the ministry’s request.

Safer Schools Together is a Surrey-based company specializing in school safety, offering training and resources around violence, bullying and critical incidents in schools.

“I share the community’s goals of addressing racism so we can move forward to create meaningful, positive change,” Beare wrote.

Why parents and Esk’etemc say the review isn’t enough

The Concerned Parents and Caregivers of Williams Lake and Esk’etemc want the ministry to commit to doing an investigation themselves, in partnership with the nation.

They say the Safer Schools Together review, which included questionnaires completed by more than 2,500 students, teachers and parents, and found “a mixed narrative regarding systems of student safety, racism and other school safety measures,” was inadequate.

While the Safer Schools Together review lists Esk’etemc leadership and the First Nations Education Council, a local advisory group, among those it consulted, Robbins said those consultations were limited to a single preliminary meeting and the nation was not given an opportunity to provide feedback on the process.

The survey was multiple choice and did not provide space to add context to responses until a comment section at the very end, Esk’etemc education director Calvin Dubray told The Tyee. It also did not ask respondents to identify whether they were Indigenous or people of colour.

In an emailed statement, School District 27 board chair Angie Delainey said she has confidence in the review by Safer Schools Together.

The review recommended the school district develop a more robust communication strategy to help “re-shape the narrative impacted by negative publicity” through training on open and transparent communication for board members and staff.

In an email, a spokesperson said the ministry is currently analyzing the complete 171-page report and will be sharing it with the school district and board of education once privacy reviews are completed to ensure anonymity.

“Our hope is that this transparent review helps invite people into the process, for us to discuss and work together on programs and solutions,” Lenardon said in the written statement provided to The Tyee.

“It’s hard when you get your hopes up and you think things are going to improve and change and they don’t,” Dubray told The Tyee.

The Tyee also asked the Williams Lake First Nation and Xatśūll First Nation, which are within the school district, to comment on their experiences with the school system.

In response to an interview request, Williams Lake First Nation Kúkpi7 Willie Sellars wrote: “We don’t have the same experience with the School District as these groups. Our Local Education Agreement gives us a platform to discuss our concerns with SD27 and we hold up our relationship with them. Our cultural team is fully engaged and it’s been super positive.”

The statement provided by the school district notes Sellars is also a local author who is touring the schools to share his books, Dipnetting with Dad and Hockey with Dad, as an example of anti-racism and local Indigenous culture work in the district.

In a statement provided to The Tyee, Xatśūll First Nation Kúkpi7 Rhonda Phillips said she supports calls for an investigation into the school district.

“No child should fear bullying or racism when attending school,” Phillips wrote. “In 2025, it's critical that we, as parents, caregivers, educators, and community leaders, do our part to ensure every child has access to education in an environment where they feel safe and supported.

“We raise our hands to Esk’et and CPWL [Concerned Parents and Caregivers of Williams Lake] for their dedication to protecting our youth and promoting the right of every child to a safe education.”

Esk’etemc youth facing bullying and racism

Dubray told The Tyee he’s been hearing about bullying and racism in the Cariboo-Chilcotin School District for the past three years, “from some of our youth, some of our language teachers and First Nations support workers, not just from our community but from other communities as well, about the racial violence, the bullying, the harassment, the discrimination pieces that are happening within the school district,” he said.

“One of our students, who has since graduated but held on to this for four or five years, that in her social studies class when she first arrived at the high school, she was told to go to the back of the room with all the other First Nations kids and the teacher called it ‘the reserve,’” Dubray said.

“It wasn’t just our Secwépemc student but there was the Chilcotin Carrier students along with her. They all felt very humiliated.”

Dubray previously worked as a school principal for the public school district before moving into his current role.

Ministry officials have met with parents, guardians and Esk’etemc leadership and community members several times in recent years, Dubray said.

But the ministry’s “We hear you” response to accounts of racism, and the district’s advice to those who are bullied to report it using the province’s anti-bullying ERASE online portal, aren’t enough anymore, he said. Especially now that it has been more than two years since the ministry launched its K-12 Anti-Racism Action Plan.

“It’s a lot of talk, but no action,” Dubray said, echoing calls for a ministry investigation into the district’s conduct. “When is enough enough?”

In an opinion piece published in the Williams Lake Tribune this past December, Dubray shared that Esk’etemc leadership want to expand their kindergarten-to-Grade 7 Sxoxomic Community School to go up to Grade 10.

Dubray added they are looking into taking back jurisdiction over Esk’etemc members’ education, as the Canim Lake Band has done.

“We would like to keep our kids in community if we can.”

But that’s a far-off solution, he said.

Calls for thorough investigation gaining momentum

Kúkpi7 Robbins believes calls for a thorough investigation are gaining momentum. He pointed to the Concerned Parents and Caregivers of Williams Lake’s Facebook group, which he said has roughly doubled in followers over recent months.

He described current efforts to address racism and bullying as performative and called for the ministry to collaborate with the nation on an investigation.

“Everywhere you look, you see medicine wheels and you see the language of the Secwépemc, the language of the Tŝilhqot’in. Unfortunately, in the classroom is where the challenge is,” he said.

“They can do the high-level reconciliation training, but until it filters down to the teachers and their students... only then are we really going to see some change.”

George Hobi worries about his daughter, who will soon complete Grade 12 in Vancouver.

While the superintendent of appeals found no significant effect on her education, health or safety as a result of the school district’s handling of the family’s complaints, Hobi said she would be graduating at home if she had felt safe.

The Tyee asked the ministry if a student leaving the school district automatically excludes them from filing an appeal. The ministry provided a lengthy response outlining the appeal process but did not directly answer the question.

Hobi’s daughter says her experience in the big city school is a stark contrast with what she went through in the Cariboo-Chilcotin School District.

“It’s such a multicultural city, nobody here is racist,” she said. “I also noticed there’s no fights here. Since I came to school, there’s not a single fight.

“I thought moving to the city that all of that violence, bullying and discrimination would heighten. But it’s very safe, very relaxed.”

But she acknowledged that, living so far from her parents while still in high school, she had to grow up faster than her peers. And she misses her family a lot.

“Especially around the long weekends or holidays, or I just have a tough day at school or at work and I just want to go home and talk to my mom, my dad or my sister.”