An 11-year-old girl says she doesn’t want to go to school because she has been the victim of racism.

Shay Beals says she is being targeted because of the colour of her skin and is hurt by some of the words students use at her school in Sheet Harbour, N.S.

“He’s just like, you know what, ‘stop lying you black-faced brownie person,’” says Shay. “Since he called me by my race, he made me feel like he didn’t like me because of what colour I am, and it’s not even my personality, what colour I am, and it made me feel like I didn’t exist.”

“He’s just like, ‘oh, well, my mother says we don’t like your family because you’re black.’ And we’re evil because we’re black, which is crazy right?” says her mother, Kayla Beals.

Beals says there are only five black students at Sheet Harbour Consolidated, including Shay and her sister. They don’t believe it is an isolated issue.

“It hurts me. It really hurts me to the point where I just want to pick up and leave Sheet Harbour,” says Beals

The Halifax Regional School Board says it is taking the issue seriously, but Beals disagrees.

She says she has addressed the issue with the school many times over the past two years, and as most recently as three weeks ago. She says the principal apologized but nothing more was done.

“The school and the school board are taking it very seriously,” says Halifax Regional School Board spokesperson Doug Hadley. “Just last week we had a member down from our board to speak with the students about diversity, about respecting differences.”

Beals says that’s a start, but she would like to see more programs focused on African heritage.

“If the matter doesn’t get dealt with, it’s going to continue and it’s going to escalate into something bigger and I don’t want that to happen to my kids.”

She says Shay has already been affected at a very young age.

“I really don’t want to go to school because they make me feel like I don’t belong at school,” says Shay.

The school board says no student should feel that way and says it is committed to working with the family to make them feel welcome.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell