A group of parents gathered under the rain outside the Ontario Legislature on Thursday to protest a bill that could take police officers back to public schools.
The bill 33, the Law of Support of Children and Students, 2025, would require the school boards to implement the programs of School Resources (SRO) officials where they offer the services of the Local Police, starting next school year. The legislation, which would also grant the Ministry of Education to put the school boards under supervision more easily, recently approved a second reading.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) canceled its SRO program in 2017 after the staff discovered that the presence of uniformed police parked in schools caused some students to feel uncomfortable and intimately.
The TDSB declined to comment on the bill on Thursday. CBC News also contacted the Ministry of Education of Ontario for more details, but did not receive an answer.
Police in schools make children less safe, says the professor
Bringing police officers back to schools is regressive and what schools need is better financing, not the police, speakers told the crowd.
“The police in school programs make our children less safe and not safer,” said Robyn Maynard, father of a child at a TDSB school and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Maynard said that the studies of School Resource Officers have found that children, particularly black and indigenous children, are criminalized by things that would normally be treated through daily discipline.
Since the SRO program ended in Toronto schools, arrests have been reduced, particularly arrests of young blacks, said Maynard.
“Removing the police from schools was a crucial advance from racial progress that helped protect our children, who helped protect black, indigenous and racialized students, students who live with disabilities, students who live with mental health problems and LGBTQI students for damage and be arrested, wanted, attacked and criminals for the daily instances of the daily instances of young people who are young people who are young people. Maynard said.
Maynard said the legislation “will criminalize children while undermining democratic decision -making of school boards. It is dangerous for blacks, indigenous people and all children. The life of black students matters, the life of indigenous students is important.
“Students need support and not surveillance in their place of learning. And we are here to say that we will not return.”
Sabreina Dahab, Trust of the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, said the legislation is not about security but control, surveillance and militarization of schools. In 2020, the Board voted to revoke the permission for Hamilton police to operate its SRO program in its public schools.
“We can fight and build an educational system that is rooted in care, heritage and dignity for all who do not involve police officers with weapons in our corridors,” said Dahab.
The restitution of the program would imply a review, according to the police
The Toronto Police says that there are currently no programs of school resources officers that are executed in any school in the city.
“We do not currently have SRO in schools, and any change in that state would require an exhaustive review of needs and resources as part of our regular annual budget discussions,” said Stephanie Sayer, spokesman for the Toronto Police Service, in a statement on Thursday.
“That said, a significant youth commitment continues, and we remain committed to working in collaboration with our city and provincial partners to support school security in Toronto. Many of our officers of the division and neighborhood community maintain solid relations with schools throughout the city.”
The bill itself says: “A requirement is added for the Boards to work with local police services to provide access to the school facilities, allow them to participate in school programs and implement programs of school resource officers.”
Legislation supporters said the bill will improve security.
Clayton Campbell, president of the Toronto Police Association, said the organization fully supports the reintroduction of the police in the Toronto schools.
“The TPS School Resource Officers Program was a success in its day and the decision to cancel it was Miope and was completely influenced by a very strong and vocal defenders. We had overwhelmingly positive comments of teachers, students and parents because our officers were valuable members of the school community,” said Campbell.
“They took a leadership role in the execution of programs such as anti-bullying, music, sports, community dissemination initiatives, restorative circles of justice, tutoring and breakfast clubs.
“Every day we see that younger and younger people get involved in very violent crimes, if something can be done to identify and redirect children and young people to better paths, the safest all will be.”
But Alex da Costa, a professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Alberta, said extensive studies question the effectiveness of the police in schools.
“Especially in the United States, put the SRO in the schools increased the punitive forms of discipline, where the principles and teachers will resort to the police officer in their school to help them with things that could not have resorted to them in the past,” said Da Costa.
Da Costa said that the legislation, together with the criminalization of children for everyday conflicts, can incite many students to stop coming to school completely.
