Report suggests most Edmonton families support police in public schools, even racialized ones

The suspension of the school resource officer program at Edmonton public schools was a decision “most of the students and parents” who took part in a recent study are “critical of,” according to the report’s authors.

The report notes that criticism from parents and students was notable, “regardless of racial background, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity.”

Edmonton Public Schools released the report, titled “The Experiences of Racialized and Marginalized Populations with the School Resource Officer (SRO) Program at Edmonton Public Schools,” on Wednesday afternoon.

The EPSB’s program currently remains suspended as the contentious issue of whether police should have a presence in schools continues to be debated.

In 2020, the EPSB decided to suspend the SRO program. That year, the board also approved a motion calling for an independent review of the program focusing on the experiences of Black, Brown, and Indigenous students and students with disabilities as well as other students from marginalized communities in public schools. The motion was the result of the school board fielding concerns about “the safety and well-being of racialized and marginalized youth” in schools, and how that relates to the SRO program.

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The new report was authored by three academics: Sandra Bucerius with the University of Alberta’s department of sociology, Kanika Samuels with the Toronto Metropolitan University’s department of criminology and Scot Wortley with the University of Toronto’s Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies.

The authors said they undertook a “multi-method evaluation exploring the experiences” of students. They reviewed previously existing research on SRO programs, examined data gleaned from focus groups and individual interviews with students and their parents who identify as Indigenous, Black, racialized or marginalized, and looked at student and parent surveys of youth who identify themselves that way.

EPSB chair Trisha Estabrooks said the school board would like to hear from more people, including schools’ staff and more students, and said it’s possible a decision on what to do about SROs will be made before the end of the year.

“No decisions on the SRO program will be made until after the engagement is complete,” she said. “Thank you to students and families who participated in the school resource officer evaluative study for their time and for sharing their experiences.

“The board of trustees values input from students, staff, families and community. We are committed to high-quality public education that serves the community and empowers each student to live a life of dignity, fulfillment, empathy and possibility.

“We acknowledge that we need to hear from more people.”

While answering questions from reporters on Wednesday afternoon, Estabrooks said she “didn’t read anything too surprising in the report.”

“Since I’ve served as a trustee, this has been a conversation that continues to come up,” she said.

“Some of the views (that were supportive of the program and were) expressed in the report weren’t new … (but) you can also see in the report that there are some concerns.”

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When the SRO program was suspended in 2020, the EPSB introduced an initiative it said employed a “new youth enhanced deployment model” to temporarily replace the SRO program.

It was to see police officers trained to respond with youth assigned over the north and south of the city and, subject to availability, be able to respond to calls in schools and the community. However, that initiative was later scrapped.

When asked about concerns regarding violence in schools, Estabrooks said that even though schools currently have no SROs, “principals in our schools know they can call the Edmonton Police Service at any moment.

“We have a good relationship with the Edmonton Police Service.”

On Wednesday afternoon, the EPS issued a statement saying police “appreciate the positive response for our SROs and the program.”

“Our SRO unit is a team of highly passionate and dedicated officers that work diligently with their schools and surrounding communities to support its young people,” said Enyinnah Okere, the chief operations officer of EPS’ community safety and well-being bureau. “The feedback gathered in this study is valued and affirms how our SROs continue to advocate for youth daily — and how positively they are perceived overall by those most impacted by the program.

“The research is clear: among racialized students and students from other marginalized groups, including students who self-identify as disabled or a member of the 2sLGBTQ+ community, SROs are appreciated and a preferred partner for many students and their families.”

Okere added that the EPS personnel take “all feedback, whether positive or negative, seriously and are in the practice of continuously improving how we provide service to our schools and their surrounding communities.”

Room for improvement

The report highlights criticism of the EPSB’s decision to suspend its SRO program, and notes that “most of our student and caregiver respondents feel that the SRO program prevents crime and violence in school, protects students from criminals in the community, builds relationships between students and the police, provides students with additional adult mentors, and makes students feel safe at school.”

“Few feel that the program targets students according to their race, gender, or sexual orientation,” the report reads.

However, the report also pointed out that many respondents “believe that the SRO program can be significantly improved.”

The report makes over a dozen recommendations, placing them in one of three categories.

The first set of recommendations says further research is needed and should include the views of “white, non-marginalized students with racialized students” in order to provide “comparative data and allow the school board to determine whether or not racialized and marginalized students actually view the program more or less positively than white students.”

It also calls for future research to broaden the scope of who is considered to be “marginalized” to include factors such as socioeconomic status, and to include the voice of school staff.

A second set of recommendations calls for the collection of systematic data “on any disciplinary activities involving the police, and their outcomes, both with respect to the SRO program (should it be reinstated), and with respect to activities by ‘outside police’ (should the program not be reinstated).” The report’s authors said when such data is collected, “particular attention should be paid to the collection of race-based data and other information about the person’s characteristics that they choose to disclose.”

The final set of recommendations pertains to possible improvements to the program that were based off of research and evidence that is already available.

Among the recommendations in this section were to:

-improve the process when it comes to providing information to parents and students about SRO programs, like including such details in school newsletters

-provide more opportunities for parents to meet with SROs to ask questions, like at an open house

-improve communication about how the program is different from regular policing

-improve screening and training of SROs when it comes to dealing with students from diverse backgrounds

-look at how to improve anti-bias training for SROs

-give SROs more opportunities to engage with and mentor students

-increase the role SROs play in educating students about the consequences that can result from social media use, drug use, vaping and sexual harassment

Why the SRO program was suspended

In 2020, when the EPSB initially suspended the SRO program, Estabrooks said she and her colleagues “heard loud and clear that community members have concerns about the school resource officer program and we’ve taken this feedback very seriously.”

She added that the board’s biggest concern with the program was the fact it had never been independently reviewed since it was introduced in 1979.

Last year, a report released by Alexandre Da Costa, an associate professor in educational policy studies at the University of Alberta, and local community advocate Bashir Mohamed, raised concerns about the initiative, arguing it could be creating a “school-to-prison pipeline.” Da Costa and Mohamed also called for the program’s immediate termination.

Their research found that between 2011 and 2021, school resource officers issued 2,068 criminal charges, 679 students’ expulsions had SRO involvement and 5,228 suspensions had SRO involvement. The research also found that 20,963 students were labelled as “offenders” because of the program. The researchers acknowledged that the definition of offenders in these instances is vague, something that troubled them.

In its statement to Global News regarding Da Costa and Mohamed’s report, the Edmonton Police Service said “through positive youth engagement activities, we believe SROs build strong positive rapport with the school community.”

However, the view of SROs has been mixed among academics in the province. Following a series of violent crimes involving teenage students in both Edmonton and Calgary, Mount Royal University criminologist Ritesh Narayan spoke to Global News in 2022, saying he believes early intervention is key to addressing “an influx in youth crime.”

“I think police resource officers have a very important role to play in schools,” Narayan said at the time. “I find — and it’s supported by really good research — that police officers and resource officers play an integral role in building the bridge between youth and law enforcement.”

Naryan added that he advocates for school resource officers, other police officers and social workers “working hand in hand in schools.”

More to come…

–With files from Global News’ Emily Mertz, Caley Gibson and Morgan Black