In 2020, after a number of high-profile incidents occurred involving police and racialized individuals in the US, worldwide protests against racism and racial injustice began to take hold. This movement made its way throughout North America, and in particular, throughout Ontario in somewhat inconsistent ways. As such, some regional School Board Trustees and Board Administrators were questioned about the role of police officers in schools, which is precisely what occurred in our region. In response, a regional review process was actioned, to better understand the value and need for SRO Programming. A diverse representation from our region was invited to be involved. A working committee was established as led by a consulting firm to carry out the analysis. If there were ways to improve the relationship between youth and the police in schools, this committee was mandated to find those new solutions and make recommendations for implementation. As the review progressed, it was reported that students, parents and graduates overall did not have an overwhelmingly positive experience with police in schools. We learned from some studies, that researchers argued that SRO Programs represented a “school-to-prison pipeline” approach for youth, specifically in relation to youth from marginalized communities. It was also reported that the SRO Program was a growing trend toward the militarization of school environments resulting from having a uniformed police presence in schools. The literature became wide and varied on SRO Programming during this period and focused heavily on the impact of systemic and other forms of racism on the experiences, perspectives, and educational outcomes of racialized students. In 2021, as a result of the review, a committee recommendation was made to School Board Trustees in our region to pause all SRO Programming. At this point, police officers assigned to the STPS SRO Program were reassigned to other pressing priorities and the STPS was now tasked with finding new ways to interact with youth in the community. A gap in our ability to serve the community, in particular, to interact with youth in meaningful ways was essentially created as a result of this School Board decision. Fast forward to 2024, and our region saw SRO Programming either terminated Thames Valley District School Board or com- mitted to a slow overhaul London District Catholic School Board through School Board Trustee resolutions. These decisions concerned police leaders as it was our firm belief that having police officers infrequently attend schools, had invaluable public safety benefits for the entire community. We felt that our SRO approaches had proven the concept that a police presence in schools, on an infrequent basis, had tremendously positive impacts and provided a deserved sense of safety and security for all those that use our schools. Upon the decisions to unwelcome police from attending schools for non-emergency purposes, some police leaders cautioned that behavioural issues that were already rising within schools would most likely manifest into relentlessly challenging cir- cumstances, that could see a rise in violence. Between 2021 and 2025, during the current period of police absence from schools, the STPS attended schools nearly 850 times for matters ranging from problematic and recurring behavioural issues, cyber-crimes (image distribution, threats/ bullying), theft, mischief, weapons calls (knives, replica firearms, bear spray), assaults, sexual assaults, forcible confinement
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Hometown St. Thomas • March 2025 • Page 5
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