TORONTO – Two weeks after a two-day ‘hold and secure’ at a Leslieville elementary school, the Toronto District School Board is taking steps to increase security.
A Global News report that aired Thursday raised serious questions about school safety after parents revealed an unlocked entry to Duke of Connaught Junior and Senior Public School that is without security.
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On September 28th and 29th the school was placed in ‘hold and secure’ mode.
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According to the TDSB website that is a “response to a threat and/or incident in the general vicinity of a school, but not on or very near to school property. School life continues as normal inside the school; however, as a precautionary measure, outer doors are locked and no one enters or leaves the building.”
But parents pointed out to Global News that there was an opening to the school that remained accessible. They say they raised this concern for months with the school’s Principal and the TDSB.
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As a result, TDSB Spokesperson Ryan Bird says, “what we’ve done is make sure TDSB security is on hand, today, and as well going forward on a temporary basis we’re going to have a school based safety monitor at the school in that area to make sure that it is safe as possible and that’s during the time we find the more permanent solution.”
Bird explains that the school board has known about this issue and is now “redoubling efforts” to solve the problem.
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“We have heard about this in the past and we did in fact follow up with the City at the time. It’s clear more has to be done,” he adds.
The TDSB sent a letter home to parents detailing the new security measures at the school.
It reads, in part, “Since our hold and secure two weeks ago, we have been working diligently with our safe and caring schools staff to review security at our school while police continue to investigate the threat that was received.”
In terms of the police investigation, Global News has learned the threat that led to the ‘hold and secure’ is still an active investigation, but there is no direct threat to the safety of the students.
Toronto Police say a meeting is being planned with parents to provide whatever information they can share at this time.
School Safety Advocate Stu Auty says it is crucial parents be kept in the loop.
Parents need to feel secure, they need to feel like they’re being communicated to. Some of the worst things that can happen is that, quite frankly, rumours start to expand, whatever’s happened, mountains are made out of molehills,” he adds, “what parents want really is real information. They simply want to be able to communicate to their kids what’s happened.”
A parent group from Duke of Connaught released a statement to Global News.
It says in part, “It is unfortunate that it took going to the media to get this concern appropriately addressed by the school administrators and TDSB given that the security issue was brought to their attention over two weeks ago during the lockdown.”
The statement emphasizes that parents feel “Safety and communication should be a priority for all schools in Toronto especially when such a serious threat is made.”