A trustee from Hamilton’s public school board says she’s planning to appeal an ultimatum the board has given her.
On Mar. 25, the board voted to bar Ward 2 trustee Sabreina Dahab from attending private meetings, unless she removes a post from her social media that contains what the board considers confidential information.
In that post, Dahab talks about the board launching an investigation against her, for pro-Palestinian messages she shared online following the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
In a statement yesterday, Dahab said her original post remains up, and after speaking with her legal counsel, she has informed the board of her plans to appeal.
“While I wish I could share more at this moment, attempts at transparency will be met with a code of conduct complaint resulting in another investigation,” Dahab said in the statement.
READ MORE: Hamilton public school board probes trustee’s pro-Palestine social media posts
On Monday March 25th, the @HWDSB trustees passed a motion requesting that I take down my statement on Palestine or I will be barred from any private session of the board and committees for the rest of my term.
Please see my statement below.
1/2#HamOnt #onted pic.twitter.com/Xt8PE9h6Sy
— Sabreina Dahab (@sabreina_dahab) April 8, 2024
The dispute comes as the Ministry of Education is in the process of changing how school trustee conduct complaints are handled.
The proposed new rules aim to resolve complaints in a quicker and more transparent manner, incentivizing the board to solve any issues at the board level within 20 days, before they would have to refer it to an external integrity commissioner at the board’s cost.
Todd White was the only trustee who voted against the ultimatum to Dahab, and believes code of conduct complaints should be avoided.
“In codes of conduct processes, there are no winners, it produces losers on all sides. There’s no board that comes out of a code of conduct process that looks good. So from my experience, there’s alternate routes to deal with conflict. Ultimately, some of these decisions that are being reported really describe cultural issues within school boards, the environment in which we work in,” White said.
“My hope and my aim is to improve that culture, those environments, and not necessarily proceed with codes of conduct. I find there’s a number of mitigating steps that can be taken before we have to resort to codes of conduct.”
White said he thinks there should be a wide tolerance for differing political opinions on all public school boards, and said he believes board members should have some right to express their opinions.