Metal detectors in high schools may be inevitable: councillor

The installation of metal detectors in Toronto high schools may be inevitable, city councillor Michael Thompson said yesterday.

But Mr. Thompson (Scarborough Centre) cautions that “we’re not there yet.” Some recommendations from a school safety report conducted after a 15-year-old boy was shot in a high school corridor last spring still have not been implemented, and Mr. Thompson said it is worth giving those initiatives time to yield results.

“I’d hate to see the whole innocence of school lost,” he said of the consequences of metal detectors. “We may well be moving down that road.”

One student was shot outside Bendale Business and Technology Institute in Mr. Thompson’s Scarborough ward on Tuesday, forcing four schools to go into lockdown as police looked for the assailants. Yesterday afternoon, Victoria Park Collegiate Institute was locked down after reports a gun was spotted inside the school, located near the Don Valley Parkway/Highway 401 interchange.

Since Tuesday’s shooting, Mr. Thompson said he has noticed stark differences between how adults and young people have reacted to the shooting.

“Young people seem to think of it as a matter of fact that there are people who carry guns,” he said, adding he finds that “chilling.”

The violence comes the same week police officers took up posts in 27 high schools across the city – an initiative that trustees say originated with police, who are keen to foster good relations with youth.

Toronto District School Board trustee Scott Harrison, who represents Bendale, enthusiastically welcomed the program, but says metal detectors would go too far.

“I’ve had parents ask me before about it, but metal detectors, I think, are a reactionary thought. We need to really look at the situation at large,” he said. He said Toronto is hardly as violent as some American cities that have used the security measures in schools.

“We need to do anything reasonable to protect our schools,” said trustee Josh Matlow, but it should not include metal detectors.

“We haven’t moved towards hiring the type of staff who can see early warning signs and take a child’s hand when they see a warning sign and not let go until they graduate.”

City councillor Rob Ford (Etobicoke North) says that while metal detectors may not hurt, more meaningful solutions need not be so oppressive. For example: football.

“It’s proven that if these kids play sports, it’s natural that these kids have to get to class, have to get the grades to go to university,” said Mr. Ford, who coaches the football team at a Rexdale high school.

“Let’s try all the other ways before we start treating them like criminals and inmates in a jail."