A group of Black parents and their allies held a rally outside Queen’s Park Thursday to protest the Ford government’s proposed plan to bring police officers back into schools — a move organizers say would threaten the well-being and education of racialized students.
Earlier this month, Minister of Education Paul Calandra tabled an omnibus bill, the Supporting Children and Students Act, in the provincial legislature that would reinstate the controversial school resource officer (SRO) program, where offered by local police forces, for the next school year.
On Thursday a crowd of 50 people braved a summer downpour to hear parents, former students and a Hamilton school board trustee give impassioned speeches, including personal testimonies, voicing opposition to the return of SRO programs.
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“We’re all supposed to be somewhere else,” said Charline Grant, a É«É«À² parent and head of the advocacy group Parents of Black Children. “But we are here in the rain, fighting just for the rights of our children to go to school, to be educated.”
In between speeches, organizers led chants of “We’re not going back” and “No police in schools!”Â
Supporters of SRO programs say they will make schools safer and help students build relationships with officers, but speakers on Thursday and other critics argue it continues the harmful pattern of overpolicing and targeting racialized youth in the education system.
Speaker after speaker shared stories of elementary school-aged kids being handcuffed, school resource officers using force on students and teens being wrongfully arrested and detained.
“I have experienced what it is to rush out of work towards your child’s school because of an average conflict between two friends that was escalated unnecessarily by police,” said a parent named Melissa.
“The principal and vice-principal were working towards a plan for restorative justice,” she continued, “But in the case of my son the harm has already been done.”
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Organizers hold up a cloth sign at Thursday’s rally.
Nathan Bawaan/É«É«À² Star
Many also pointed to past reports from É«É«À² police, the Ontario Human Rights Commission and academics that found SRO programs harm racialized students.
Currently, 37 school boards in Ontario have an active SRO program. Police services ended programs in É«É«À², Peel and York schools over the past eight years after school boards and community groups raised concerns about systemic racism and the harms from having officers in schools.
Given the Ford government’s majority in the provincial legislature, the omnibus education bill including the SRO program provision is likely to pass in the fall once MPPs return from their summer break.
Still, organizers on Thursday said they were prepared to push back.
“There’s a fight ahead of us,” said Butterfly GoPaul, a TDSB parent and organizer from Jane Finch Action Against Poverty. “The first round was about 10 years (long). Let’s make this one shorter.”
With files from Isabel Teotonio
Nathan Bawaan is a É«É«À²-based general assignment reporter for
the Star. Reach him via email: nbawaan@thestar.ca
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