She puts 'sweat, blood and tears' into teaching kids with mental health challenges

CBC Quebec is highlighting people from the province's Black communities who are giving back, inspiring others and helping to shape our future. These are the 2023 Black Changemakers.

Like many teachers, Tina Oppong puts 110 per cent into her job.

But hers is no regular classroom. Oppong only has a handful of students — all of different ages and in different grades, and most of them only with her for one academic year.

Oppong is the head teacher of the day program at the Jewish General Hospital's child psychiatry department. It is a program that is unique in Canada, where children with mental health or behavioural issues get intensive help, including their own lesson plan, created in conjunction with a team of experts.

Oppong's students have often struggled in a traditional school setting. Many have already been in and out of foster care and group homes.

Oppong said the job requires her to be nimble: part teacher, part social worker, ready to adapt to each student's needs.

"It is absolutely soul-wrenching," said Oppong, "and you put in your sweat, blood and tears."

But she says there's nowhere she'd rather be.

Oppong sees something of herself in her students. She, too, went through childhood struggles.

When her parents first immigrated from Ghana to Canada, they couldn't bring their three children. Oppong said she was left with a relative who became physically and emotionally abusive. She was reunited with her parents when she was seven, but the scars remained.

"It took me a long, long, long time to get to where I am today, and I'm still working on it," she said. As an adult, she was diagnosed with a general anxiety disorder.

'A relatable person'

Anxiety is a common problem among students at the day school, especially since the start of the pandemic.

Stephen Hennessy, who works with Oppong and nominated her to be a Changemaker, said the head teacher's openness about her own issues is part of what puts her students at ease.

"She keeps it very real — for the kids and their parents to understand," he said. "She's a very relatable person."

He said Oppong often tells her students about how she used to be afraid of animals, for example, but after working on it, she learned she liked dogs — and now is a proud pup owner herself.

Stories like that one show the students that their anxieties can be overcome and can lead to good things, he said.

"It's really been helpful in getting these kids going in the right direction."

• Black Changemakers: Giving back, inspiring others and helping to shape our future

It wasn't always so easy. Even though Oppong excelled academically in Canada, she struggled to fit in at school.

She said she faced a lot of racism. She recalls other children spitting on her or saying she was made of chocolate. Teachers would call her stupid, despite her good marks.

She is still fighting against that racism. She works for the English Montreal School Board, but she also has children in EMSB classrooms, and with another parent, she founded the Parents' Committee's Anti-Racism Subcommittee.

Her fight is for all marginalized children, she said, but too often she has witnessed Black boys and girls who are "at the bottom of the totem pole: who are criminalized, who keep getting — literally, like, the smallest little thing, and they get a suspension and then they get expelled."

Her outspokenness has not come without pushback.

Oppong said when she brought up concerns that interviewing students for high schools would disadvantage Black children, she said many accused her of suggesting school administrators were racist.

"But I need to make sure that somebody is speaking up for them and their families," she said.

As both an educator and a parent, Oppong said she has one thing to tell others who work with children, regardless of their background.

"I'm not going to tell you it's not difficult, but please, please: have some compassion and understanding, because you literally control their futures," she said.

"Every single educator, every single worker, staff member who is in the school — you are writing their story."

The Black Changemakers is a special series recognizing individuals who, regardless of background or industry, are driven to create a positive impact in their community. From tackling problems to showing small gestures of kindness on a daily basis, these changemakers are making a difference and inspiring others. Meet all the changemakers here.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.