Toronto

A Toronto District School Board trustee is under fire after appearing to be more concerned about a triple word score than a heated meeting with parents Tuesday night.

Stavros Rougas, whose son attends Grade 2 at John Fisher Junior Public School, couldn’t believe what he was seeing when he glanced over and saw trustee Gerri Gershon engrossed in a Scrabble-type game on her phone while parents concerned by plans for a 33-storey highrise development near the midtown school were shouting.

“This is a meeting she instigated because there was push-back from the parents,” Rougas said Wednesday. “She stood up at the meeting and spoke, and yet she showed a clear lack of interest in what the parents had to say.”

Rougas immediately posted the photo of Gershon playing the word game on his Twitter feed and confronted the trustee, who appeared “surprised someone noticed” she was on her phone.

“She was two metres from the podium, literally in the front row,” he said. “I walked out because I needed to just cool off.”

Unbelievable. @tdsb trustee @GerriGershon playing game on phone as parents plea for info on confidential land lease w developer @GregRoss17pic.twitter.com/lodK4vs8x2 — Stavros Rougas (@StavrosRougas) November 16, 2016

Parents of John Fisher school students are worried about the potential impact of vibrations, dust and diminished sunlight on their kids’ health and the planned use of part of the school playground — located on Erskine Ave., in the Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave. neighbourhood — as a staging area.

Gershon, who was first elected trustee in 1985, says she was playing the game on her phone for about three minutes, but contends she was all ears. She told a local radio station Wednesday morning the game “helps to centre me.”

“While I was listening to members of the community during the entirety of last’s night’s meeting, I obviously should have been listening more intently and for that I truly apologize,” Gershon said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday. “Despite this momentary lapse in judgment, I want to assure the community that I have been and continue to be a strong advocate for their views on this issue.”

But Rougas said he has yet to hear from Gershon directly and believes she is more concerned about “the wider optics” of her public image than what parents think. The TDSB will vote on the development at its Nov. 23 meeting, but Rougas said if Gershon wants to restore trust, she should ensure the issue is removed from the agenda.

“My seven-year-old asked me this morning why I was talking to someone on the radio,” he said. “I said that someone was playing video games on their phone and was not paying attention to something important. He smiled. At seven, he understood (you) can’t do both.”

jyuen@postmedia.com