Reactions mixed after Edmonton Public Schools votes to reinstate school resource officers
A group that represents students across the province says it opposes the Edmonton Public School's decision to bring back the school resource officer (SRO) program.
The board voted 5-3 in favour of resuming the program on Tuesday afternoon.
The program had been in public schools until the board made the decision to suspend it in September 2020 because of concerns about the impact on racialized and marginalized students.
Thirty-two people spoke at the meeting on Tuesday before the decision.
"The decision yesterday is deeply disappointing, because there has been multiple years of information being gathered about the harms of having school resource officers inside public schools," Wing Li of Support our Students Alberta (SOS) told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday.
"Many students who we have also spoken with find police in schools to be a perpetration of harm to them."
She's concerned bringing back SROs won't actually address the problems causing safety issues in classrooms.
"Parents that aren't in school think that it's a good solution," she said.
"It only serves for the perception of safety and not actually solving the root problems."
Li says she was concerned about the lack of alternatives discussed at Tuesday's meeting.
"We know that there have been provincial cuts to funding, so schools have lost counsellors, they have lost wraparound support workers who are not police."
"These adjacent personnel could be added back to schools with the money that they're allotting to the SRO program."
Dan Jones is the chair of Justice Studies at Norquest College and a former police inspector with the Edmonton Police Service who oversaw the SRO program for four years.
He says many SROs go above and beyond in their work with students.
"People don't realize there's a lot of times the SROs are working in schools and not wearing a uniform, they're not carrying their gun, they're wearing tracksuits. They're coaching sports," he commented on Wednesday.
He suggested most students who had experienced the SRO program felt the experience was worthwhile.
"The vast majority of students and parents that had the school resource officers involved actually liked it. And that was across the board, whether it was BIPOC communities, the LGBTQ community, it was all communities like having the SROs."
He says the program is all about building relationships, and that can make students safer.
"Sometimes the SROs have relationships that they will get that information. Someone will be like, 'Something that is going to happen.' So you have an intelligence piece that sometimes prevents things from happening."
He also says those relationships can stop kids from ending up in jail.
"The police officers get to see the whole story of these youths. You get to know them, you get to have a relationship with them, you're not just dealing with them in that crisis moment."
"Because you have that relationship, you want to work with them to help them through something rather than punish them."
The details of how the SRO program will look when it resumes are still unclear, but the board voted Tuesday to give the superintendent authority over it.
Edmonton Catholic Schools has maintained its SRO program.
There are currently 13 SROs working in local Catholic schools.
With files from CTV news Edmonton's Nav Sangha
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Blaine Higgs 'furious' over sexual education presentation
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs has shared his anger on social media over a presentation in at least four high schools.
Grayson Murray, two-time PGA Tour winner, dead at 30
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
This type of screen time has the worst effect on kids: experts
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Man throws flaming liquid on New York City subway, burns fellow rider
A man set a cup of liquid on fire and tossed it at fellow subway rider in New York City, setting the victim's shirt ablaze and injuring him.
'Furiosa,' 'Garfield' lead slowest Memorial Day box office in decades
Movie theaters are looking more and more like a wasteland this summer. Neither "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" nor "The Garfield Movie" could save Memorial Day weekend, which is cruising towards a two-decade low.
Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Driver, 18, gets $3,000 ticket, 32 demerit points after speeding on Laval boulevard
A young driver received a hefty fine from Laval police after they say he was driving nearly 100 km/h over the posted speed limit.
Hamas rocket attack from Gaza sets off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv for the first time in months
Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from Gaza that set off air raid sirens as far away as Tel Aviv for the first time in months on Sunday in a show of resilience more than seven months into Israel's massive air, sea and ground offensive.
At least 9 dead in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after severe weather roars across region
Powerful storms killed at least nine people and left a wide trail of destruction Sunday across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas after obliterating homes and destroying a truck stop where drivers took shelter during the latest deadly weather to strike the central U.S.