Police in schools is not the answer

Last Friday, students showed that they have had enough. At York Memorial Collegiate Institute, students organized a walkout to protest unsafe learning conditions. The school has seen daily fights, with staff pinning the blame on the students.

Student leaders who organized the walkout emphasized that it is school administration and board officials who are responsible for the escalating situation, not students. They cited a lack of staff trained in de-escalation — a direct result of underfunding schools — and felt that resorting to punitive disciplinary measures, such as suspensions and expulsions, or calling the police, only exacerbated distrust, making matters worse.

The recent uptick in violence in schools has led to renewed calls for reinstating the school resource officer (SRO) program, which would see armed and uniformed officers return to Toronto schools. Throwing police at the problem, which was already attempted and notably failed, does nothing to address the ongoing concerns of youth in the city. We simply cannot police our way out of this crisis.

Having SROs in schools often increases the threat of criminalization for racialized youth. The 2009 altercation between a 16-year old student at Northern Secondary School in Toronto and an SRO, Constable Syed Ali Moosvi, illustrates the type of escalation that can occur.

In response to the student calling Const. Moosvi “bacon” as he walked through the hall, the officer shoved the student against the wall, and ordered him to put his hands behind his back. The student was ultimately arrested in front of his peers and charged with assault. The incident only came to light because students filmed it on their cellphones.

There are many other examples that demonstrate that police officers are ill-equipped to de-escalate situations and often make schools more unsafe. In the TDSB’s own review of the SRO program, which included a survey of students at 45 schools, many students expressed feeling extremely uncomfortable with the presence of SROs in their schools.

In 2017, TDSB trustees voted by a measure of 18-3 (with one abstention) to end the SRO program. They did so in response to the clear evidence drawn from community consultations, public deputations, and a student survey indicating that the SRO program left students — in particular, Black, Indigenous, Latinx and disabled students — feeling intimidated, unsafe, and targeted.

In the days following the decision, then-chair of the trustee board, Robin Pilkey, penned an op-ed where she states that it is “unacceptable that the board would simply say the majority rules and continue with the program knowing full well that some of our students — not activists and hardliners, just students — felt uncomfortable, intimidated and targeted in their own school.”

The evidence clearly shows that the SRO program did not make schools safer. If it didn’t work then, why would it work now?

Violent incidents in schools have nothing to do with the absence of police officers. Rather, they are a direct result of a lack of meaningful opportunities for youth within schools and beyond. In addition to the profound stress of the pandemic, and the inadequate social responses to it, which only exacerbated pre-existing inequities, students experience a reality of unbearably high rents, low-paying and precarious jobs, and futures beyond school that look more and more uncertain.

The chronic underfunding of public education and the failure to invest in appropriate social and economic programs have created the conditions for violence in schools. To effectively prevent and mitigate youth violence, we must make meaningful investments in public education as well as programs and initiatives that restore prospects for youth.

In schools, this will likely include hiring more caring adults who are committed to working from an anti-racist, restorative, and traumainformed lens — not more cops. We don’t need to look far to find meaningful solutions to this problem. Youth at York Memorial Collegiate Institute and elsewhere have already told us what they need to feel safe in schools. It’s about time that adults listen.

PHILLIP DWIGHT MORGAN IS A FIRSTGENERATION CANADIAN WRITER OF JAMAICAN HERITAGE. HIS WRITING EXPLORES THE INTERSECTIONS OF RACE, REPRESENTATION, AND STATE VI OLENCE I N CANADA. S ALIMA KASSAM IS A TORONTO HIGH S CHOOL TEACHER.