NewmarketToday is marking this giving season by celebrating Newmarket's Community Angels, the people whose kindness, compassion and community spirit help make our town one of the best to live in the country.
Three years ago, Shameela Hoosen-Shakeel would never have imagined that she would become one of Newmarket and York Region's most influential public education advocates.
A mother of four and mental health professional, Hoosen-Shakeel has led a forceful campaign pushing for reforms to prevent school violence.
In the two years that she has been working on the issue, her renown in education circles has only grown. She is now co-chair of York Communities for Public Education and is involved in many other education initiatives, including a safe school environment for students and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I love to see the community pulling together, and I think this year has really shone a light on how we can do stuff together even when things are not going well, and things can seem hopeless," she said.
Hoosen-Shakeel's entrance to the world of education policy began when her daughter was in Grade 3. There were several violent incidents in her daughter's classroom.
There had been incidents the year before, said Hoosen-Shakeel, and her daughter's principal had assured her it was being taken care of. But the next year, the problem worsened.
"At first, my daughter wasn't too impacted. She would come home and tell me stories, and obviously, I could tell that something was bothering her. But she was very upset in the spring after her teacher, who was pregnant, was hit in the stomach by one of the students," she said.
"That was very alarming for all of us. She had to go on medical leave after that, and none of us could blame her. The principal kept saying he was on it, and there were issues in the school in general."
"It wasn't just one student, and we didn't feel like it was being dealt with very well. So that's when I said that as parents, we have a role to play because our kids are getting lost in the shuffle."
Hoosen-Shakeel said it's good and necessary for the schools to focus on kids with complex behavioural needs. But after seeing how violence had impacted her own daughter's well-being, she and her fellow parents felt more needed to be done to address violence and its impact on the rest of the students from a mental health perspective. Not just at her daughter's school, but across the region.
They started with parent engagement on the topic to discuss school violence, which garnered provincial and national media attention.
"It got me on the school board's radar," she said.
Over the past two years, Hoosen-Shakeel has hosted several different events on the subject of school violence, but admits that the change she has hoped for has been slow in coming.
"I've had one meeting with the school board, and I keep waiting to be looped in again," she said.
"To their credit, they are doing more. Maybe because they've realized I'm not going to back down. They are bringing in behavioural therapists and they are trying to do stuff they're just being so slow about it.
"I'm sort of that voice that keeps saying that something needs to be done, and they need to bring in mental health supports for all the students."
As for why she has persisted instead of throwing her hands up in the air in frustration, Hoosen-Shakeel said, as a master’s level practitioner/psychometrist, she has seen the impact that witnessing violent incidents has on children.
It's no different than kids who see violence at home, she argues. If violent incidents keep happening in school, and there are inadequate mental health supports in place, there can be lifelong consequences for the students if they keep seeing school violence.
Editor's Note, Jan. 12, 2022: The original version of this article incorrectly referenced the profession of Shameela Hoosen-Shakeel. It has been corrected.
