Richard Bilkszto's suicide is a stark lesson in the dangers of bullying among adults

A former high school principal committed suicide following harassment at a TDSB EDI workshop.

Photo by Jonathan Taylor on Unsplash

There aren’t a lot of other opportunities to write about bullying in the context of adults. It happens. It happens all the time, and sometimes with grave consequences. When we are children, we are told to stand up to our bullies. But more so, we have adults to turn to; people who will step in and intercede on our behalf. As adults, when we face bullying, be it cyber or face-to-face, we are, more often than not, expected to shake it off. There is not in every case an authority we can turn to for help because we are the grown-ups now. 

There are a lot of words I could use to describe my experiences with Antisemitism in law school. Bullying could certainly be one of them. So, when my law school partner in crime sent me an article about the suicide of Richard Bilkszto, I knew it was something that I had to talk about. 

Richard Bilkszto was a lifetime teacher and principal who had come out of retirement in September 2020 to serve as principal of Burnhamthorpe High School, an adult education school. By all accounts, the superintendent and others at the school and school board were impressed with his leadership and capabilities.  

In April 2021, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) hired Kike Ojo-Thompson, founder and CEO of the KOJO Institute to lead a four-part workshop on systemic inequality. During the second session, on April 26, Thompson made a comment about Canada being a bastion of white supremacy and colonialism, far worse than the United States (recordings of the session were obtained by the Free Press here).  Bilkszto interjected to push back on the assertion, saying that Canada is a far more just society and going on to make reference to the differences between how funding for schools and health care are provided in Canada and the United States. Bilkszto’s interjection was not well received. Not only did Thomspon push back immediately during the April 26 session, accusing Bilkszto and his “whiteness” of telling her what is really going on with black people, but she also chose to bring up the interaction in the third session as well. On May 3, during the third session, Thompson referred back to Bilkszto’s comment as a teachable moment and an example of how white supremacy is upheld through resistance and discomfort with open-ended discussions of race. Unlike on April 26 where none of the other 200 attendees said anything in support of either side, on May 3, attendees jumped at the chance to attack Bilkszto for having attempted to challenge Thompson’s assertion. Bilkszto did not attend the final session, and shortly after filed a complaint with the school board for harassment. The harassment of Bilkszto did not remain confined to the Zoom workshop but spilled out to social media. 

In August 2021, the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board investigated Bilkszto’s complaint and found that Thompson’s behaviour constituted workplace harassment. Despite this outcome,  the damage was already done. Bilkszto stopped receiving teaching contracts, and his work environment became increasingly frosty. In April 2023, Bilkszto sued the TDSB over Thompson’s actions and the refusal on the part of administrators and other school board officials to come to his defence, which had resulted in continuing personal and professional l damage. 

But as previously discussed here, the wheels of justice sometimes move too slowly. Before Bilkszto had the opportunity to have his day in court, on July 13, he jumped from the window of his apartment. The lawsuit has been continued by his estate.

On July 27, when questioned about the incident, Thompson said that it was being weaponized to discredit her work and that she would not be deterred from continuing. Both she and the KOJO Institute have refused further comment on the matter. 

It is horrible to think, let alone hope, that Bilkstzo’s death could be a wake-up call. We shouldn’t need to be shaken into alertness on the dangers of bullying, it is something we have been taught since a young age. Yet, I know intimately that what Bilkszto experienced was not a one-off. What Bilkszto said was not unreasonable. It is important to engage in discussions on difficult topics and to challenge extreme statements of the nature of that which Thompson made. It doesn’t mean that one is closed off to learning new things but rather engaging in the sort of debate that, since Socrates, has been lauded as fundamental to the learning process. The type of civil disagreement that Bilkszto displayed to Thompson’s statement was one that was once entirely normal. What is happening now is entirely abnormal. Thompson, in her lived experience, is entitled to view Canada as being more racist than the United States, and Bilkszto is entitled to disagree with this. It certainly does not make him a White Supremacist. 

As a student, when myself and my peers engaged in eerily similar interactions over anti-Israel and Antisemitic comments made by our professors, and often jumped in on by our peers who did not come to our defence, there was this tendency to brush it off as just university politics - these were things happening in this strange environment of the educational institution that has no bearing once you step off campus. But that isn’t really true. We carry the ghosts of these experiences with us. Cancel culture and bullying individuals who attempt to push back on extreme assertions or want to engage in civil discourse on difficult topics is a real danger. 

We take bullying seriously when it is our children. It is time to stop overlooking it in adults.