Edmonton Public School Board trustees have voted to reinstate school resource officers following a heated meeting where parents and educators argued about balancing children’s comfort and their safety.
Trustees voted five to three in favour of a motion to ensure the Edmonton Police Service has a formal role in division schools to enhance student and staff safety on Tuesday.
Trustees Saadiq Sumar, Marcia Hole and Trisha Estabrooks voted against the motion, while chair Julie Kusiek, vice chair Jan Sawyer, Dawn Hancock, Marsha Nelson and Sheri O’Keefe voted for the motion.
Kusiek said she was against school resource officers in the past, but she’s spoken to educators and better understands their needs.
“What I heard was being pushed into the position of having to act in a jurisdiction that you don’t feel that you’re able to do,” she said. “That you are an instructional leader and that having to look at law enforcement side of things or look at the ‘when do we call police’ or ‘how long does it take for them to come.’”
On the other hand, Hole said the motion doesn’t adhere to the board’s anti-racism policy or to reconciliation work.
“My fear is that you know, making policies that’s ripe for the numeric majority and ignoring the very massive risks to minority groups who are quite frankly left out of these conversations,” she said.
The school resource officer program was suspended in September 2020 amid concerns about the impact of police officers on racialized students. The board commissioned a review of the program which included consultation with students, parents and teachers.
The motion to have police return to Edmonton schools was put forward by Nelson.
Ahead of the vote, 37 members of the community registered to speak to the committee about the impact of school resource officers.
One educator and assistant principal urged trustees to vote in favour of the motion, saying staff at her school have dealt with situations they never thought they would face. She cited axe attacks, macing, bathroom fights, assaults with belts, bats and knives, students with airsoft and handguns, gang activity, online and in-person threats, extortion, sexual assault, and illegal substances.
“Working with my colleagues at other schools. I can confidently say these are not isolated problems and not limited to my school,” she told the committee.
Another present who spent years working with Indigenous communities said schools are responsible for ensuring the safety of students, and some schools require school resource officers.
“They provide a vital service to those students and to the public at large,” she said.
Many parents opposed the policy, and even argued that school resource officers would target students of colour.
“We already know that (school resource officers) tend to target (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) students, and those who are neurodiverse or identify as gender diverse,” a presenter told the committee.
“And we know that interacting with a (school resource officer) can lead to higher chances of that student having additional involvement with the criminal justice system throughout their adolescence and into their adult years.”
Alexandre Da Costa, a professor of education at the University of Alberta with two kids in Edmonton’s public schools, said he opposed the motion to return policy to schools “in any form.”
“Edmonton Public has purposely been underfunded at a time when many identified student and educator needs are exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “Bringing police into the situation will further a law and order mindset in schools already promoted at the municipal and provincial levels of government.”
