Policing-Free Schools Ontario tour makes a stop in Sudbury

The Policing-Free Schools campaign, backed by the Black Lives Matter movement, rallied at the Rainbow District School Board offices in Sudbury on Wednesday.

A protest in Sudbury on Wednesday called on the province to boost education spending rather than mandate school resource officer programs.

Policing-Free Schools, in partnership with Black Lives Matter-Sudbury, was part of a 30-person protest outside the Rainbow District School Board office on Wembley Drive.

“We are collectively saying to Doug Ford and the minister of education: fund our schools, fund our communities, not policing in schools,” said Andrea Vásquez Jiménez, director of Policing-Free Schools.

Vásquez said there was already a provincial campaign underway, but Bill 33 has increased urgency. The bill would require schools to implement school resource officer programs, wherever such programs are available.

Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas, who attended Wednesday’s protest, said she is opposed to Bill 33 for several reasons, including the fact it would give the province expanded powers over school boards.

“Bill 33 means that they wouldn’t be school boards anymore,” Gelinas said.

Centralized control

“It would be the government that would pick somebody in Toronto (to be) in charge of schools in northern Ontario. That makes no sense. Bill 33 would mean that police officers would be in every single one of our schools. Bill 33 means that the $6 billion cuts that they have done to our education system in Ontario … nobody would push against this because they would all work for the government.”

While the Rainbow board wouldn’t comment on the rally itself, officials provided a statement about the successful partnership between the board and the Greater Sudbury Police Service.

“While there are different models across the province, locally, school resource officers play a positive and proactive role,” the statement said.

“They are not policing in our schools. They are building respectful relationships within the school community. They are a familiar face that students and staff go to for support, resources and guidance. Early connection with young people benefits schools and the communities that they serve.”

But Vásquez Jiménez said BLM Sudbury has already collected student testimonials on school resource programs.

That research includes “young people themselves speaking specifically to the harms of police presence and policing within local spaces,” she said.

“In addition to that, there is an abundance of reports, research data, also lived experiences and current living experiences around the detrimental harms of policing in schools, whether it’s feeling unwelcomed, feeling surveilled, feeling that they don’t want to attend school, or even including punitive discipline, increased punitive disciplinary practices and harms that are being caused.”

Officials with Sudbury police said they continue to support youth and education through their thriving school resource officer and community safety personnel programs.

Aim is to ‘build trust’

“At the request of all four local school boards, (Sudbury police) maintains a consistent presence in schools, with two SROs and two CSPs serving 84 elementary and secondary schools in our jurisdiction.”

The goal is to “build trust and mutual respect through positive interactions with students,” police said.

“Identify at-risk youth who may benefit from wrap-around support services or diversion programs, rather than traditional police intervention.”

“Administrators, teachers and staff consistently report the benefits of this program, noting its role in creating safer, more inclusive school environments,” said police spokesperson Kaitlyn Dunn.

Policing-Free Schools continues its tour across the province with a stop in Simcoe County on Thursday, culminating in a province-wide rally at Queen’s Park on Oct. 20, the first day that the legislature returns.