Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustees are poised to accept a staff recommendation to permanently discontinue its 10-year relationship with the Toronto Police Service (TPS). Instituted after 15-year-old Jordan Manners was shot and killed in a stairwell at C. W. Jeffreys Collegiate Institute, the School Resource Officer (SRO) program was developed after a report on the incident recommended that more caring adults should be present in schools on a daily basis. Forty-five officers were deployed to Toronto high schools under the program, even though critics have correctly pointed out that the caring adults were never defined as uniformed police officers.
EDITORIAL (Nov. 2017): Student safety suffers as trustees cave
November 24th, 2017 · 1 Comment
EDITORIAL (AUGUST 2017): Don’t sacrifice safety for political gain
September 13th, 2017 · Comments Off on EDITORIAL (AUGUST 2017): Don’t sacrifice safety for political gain
The deeply divisive debate on whether or not the Toronto Police Service (TPS) should continue the School Resource Officer (SRO) program reveals fault lines among those responsible for ensuring that secondary education be conducted in a safe, supportive environment. Under the program, thirty-six police officers are assigned to work in Toronto’s public and Catholic high schools.