The steady barrage of objections to the Greater Victoria School Board’s decision to bar police liaison officers from schools has been piling up for more than a year now.
The volume of mail and the intensity of feelings are notable, but one letter stands out.
Faith Abigail Taylor, a former student, wrote: “I’ve always been terrified of police my entire life. … I was always told you guys were out to get me, whenever your sirens were going my adopted parents would always say ‘she’s over here, you can come and get her …’ ”
But a police liaison officer at a Saanich school several years ago made a big difference.
“She came in to see what we were doing … just sitting and talking to us like we were normal human beings, like we weren’t in trouble, like she wanted to get to know us better. …
“That’s what made the greatest difference impact in my life personally … I’m sure it made a lot of other students feel at ease. …
“I’m still terrified of you guys to this day,” she said.
But she now feels: “Sure, I’m scared of you guys but I can call you guys if I’m in an emergency or need help … knowing you won’t come and get mad at me, or you won’t be arresting me … whereas before I would have never done that.”
Local police chiefs, multiple parent advisory councils, principals and teachers have been trying to explain the value of police liaison officers to the school board. Taylor’s compelling letter does it better than any of them. Nonetheless, it has been sitting in the board’s correspondence file for almost a year and trustees still haven’t budged from their June declaration that the program is cancelled because some students feel threatened by it.
School board chair Nicole Duncan said then that there were many positive interactions “but undeniably there are some students and staff who do not feel safe with police in schools.”
The program was curtailed by Victoria police six years ago due to budget constraints, but when Chief Del Manak tried to reactivate it, the board formally cancelled it.
Victoria police are not welcome in city schools this school year except in emergencies or specified circumstances.
The policy amounts to a complete reversal, since the board and the Victoria teachers’ union strongly defended the program and objected vigorously when Manak cancelled it.
While the mounting objections don’t seem to carry any weight with the trustees, they have prompted other authorities to get involved.
Victoria city council’s motion this week to request reinstatement and ask the school board for the rationale behind cancelling it in the first place is the latest move.
It followed Saanich council’s unanimous decision to start lobbying for the school police liaison program to be adjusted and restarted.
Victoria-Esquimalt Police Board co-chair Barb Desjardins added her voice on Friday.
The police board supports the push to restart the program.
“I’ve heard from several parents that there’s significant concern around the challenges of not having the ability to have officers around schools,” she said.
“There are vulnerable kids that are being influenced by gangs and at some point they will be in tragic situations. We’re hopeful that we don’t get to a tragedy before we can solve this.”
The key issue behind the ban is the potential impact on students from different minorities. The Greater Victoria Teachers Association urged that the liaison officers be scrapped “because the police and criminal justice systems have been founded on and continue to perpetuate systemic racism.”
B.C. human rights commissioner Kasari Govender also urged suspension on those grounds, pending further study.
But several teachers and the Victoria Principals and Vice-Principals Association have written to the school board stressing the value of the program.
The Khalsa Diwan Society, Jewish Federation, Multi-Faith Society and Vancouver Island Counselling Centre for Immigrants and Refugees have also written in support, which considerably undercuts the board’s rationale.
They represent or deal with some of the very groups the board thinks are traumatized by police in schools.
There is one letter on file from the Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Colour supporting the shutdown.
That group said a local study in 2021 suggests police are a negative influence on people of colour, and says research shows that Victoria police target Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour.
That view needs to be addressed. But scrapping the whole program is an over-reaction that a growing number of people want reversed.
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