Toronto Police Services Board to study having armed cops in schools

The Toronto Police Services Board has voted to look at having armed cops patrol school hallways and classrooms amid calls from protesters to suspend a controversial program.

The School Resource Officer (SRO) program, which was first introduced in 2008, was designed to improve relations between students and police but critics argue it has done the opposite by marginalizing school communities.

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At its inception, 30 officers were assigned to 30 Toronto high schools but the program has since expanded to include 75 schools.

Groups such as Black Lives Matter and Education Not Incarceration have called for the program to be abolished. An online petition to remove officers from schools has garnered more than 900 supporters.

“For ten years far too many of our children have been treated as threats and made unsafe in their schools, as armed and uniformed officers create a culture of fear and intimidation within their learning spaces,” the petition said.

During its monthly meeting on Thursday, the board voted to create a steering committee comprised of youth, parents, school officials and community organizations “to oversee and participate in the development of the (previously requested) report on the SRO program.”

The board also voted to defer suspending the program in the interim. The final report is expected by the end of the year.

Toronto Mayor John Tory has publicly stated he would like the SRO program to keep running while police Chief Mark Saunders conducts a proper review.

Thursday’s meeting was off to a shaky start when chair Andrew Pringle had to pause the meeting several times as protesters chanted, “Let them in.”

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The discord was the result of a dispute on who should be allowed into the at-capacity meeting room. Pringle eventually had to call for a five-minute recess to clear the room before re-starting the meeting.

Many of the deputants that spoke were students, police officers, community leaders, principals and teachers, who painted a mainly positive picture of the SRO program.

Of the speakers in favour of removing SROs, some said officers were originally placed in schools without parents’ consent.

With files from Nick Westoll and Don Mitchell