I’m a kid in foster care. I was taken from my family a few times and each time a police officer was there. Now I see them in my school and it reminds me of when I was taken. I panic every time I see one, bad memories.
Check out the cover story by Irene Bindi in the latest issue of Briarpatch Magazine—an inspiring survey of police-free schools organizing in cities across the country, including Hamilton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Vancouver.
After looking at the results of a commissioned review, Louis Riel School Division has voted to end the School Resource Officer program, which spanned 40 schools in the division.
As APTN reports, "feedback from staff, students and families, including BIPOC students said they felt uneasy with the presence of an officer. It led the school division to use the money for the SRO program on a new diversity and anti-racism initiative. LRSD priorities include implementing a curricula review emphasizing anti-racism and decolonization and adding an anti-racism education office to address issues of systemic racism among others."
The board of trustees, however, has voted to keep the results of their review to themselves, in spite of a previously stated commitment to sharing these findings publicly. Where school divisions across the country continue to cite biased and methodologically unsound reviews to justify a police presence in schools, the Louis Riel School Division review has the potential to reduce harm to students throughout Winnipeg and Canada.
Contact Louis Riel School Division today and demand the release of the SRO program review!
The January 6th, 2021 info session, The Case for Police-Free Schools, is now available to watch and share online.
Hosted by Sadie-Phoenix Lavoie (Waniskatan/Red Rising Magazine), this information session includes organizers and school trustees from Winnipeg and across the country, including Andrea Vásquez Jiménez (Latinx, Afro- Latin-America, Abya Yala Education Network), Robyn Maynard (author of Policing Black Lives), Ella Taylor (Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg), Sabreina Dahab (Hamilton Students for Justice), and Jennifer Reddy (Vancouver School Board trustee).
Join us on Wednesday January 6th 2021 at 7pm CST for a free information session, The Case for Police-Free Schools, co-presented with the Institute for Humanities at the University of Manitoba and Winnipeg Police Cause Harm.
Cities and school boards across Canada are choosing to end police presence in schools as a concrete step toward equity and anti-racist education. In Winnipeg, school boards are starting to reevaluate these programs, as community organizers situate the call for police-free schools within a global movement for racial justice.
Hosted by Sadie-Phoenix Lavoie (Waniskatan/Red Rising Magazine), this information session includes organizers and school trustees from Winnipeg and across the country, including Andrea Vásquez Jiménez (Latinx, Afro- Latin-America, Abya Yala Education Network), Robyn Maynard (author of Policing Black Lives), Ella Taylor (Justice 4 Black Lives Winnipeg), Sabreina Dahab (Hamilton Students for Justice) and Jennifer Reddy (Vancouver School Board trustee).
If you're a parent, student, teacher, education worker, school trustee, administrator, or simply want to learn more about this movement, please join the discussion and register for this free information session.
On Wednesday, November 18th, Peel Regional Police announced a permanent end to the School Resource Officer Program in Peel District Schools. “It was evident during the consultation phase that the current SRO program caused a negative impact on segments of our student population,” said the Peel police in a press release. This is a huge victory for everyone organizing for Police-Free Schools Ontario-Wide, and we send our congratulations from Treaty 1 territory.
This decision has great importance for students, parents, and teachers all across the country. A high-profile report on the Peel District SRO program by researchers from Carleton University claimed that most students felt safe around police in schools. Regarding the removal of police from Toronto schools, the report simply claimed that Toronto has different demographics. This report was preferred by media and used by school boards across Canada to defend their SRO programs. What do those proponents say today? That their schools are different still, and that this latest consultation doesn't count?
With the Peel Report behind us, it is our belief that we will be able to have more honest conversations about the impact of School Resource Officers here in our communities. We're thankful for the work and advocacy of all those involved in this pathbreaking decision.
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA - Police-Free Schools Winnipeg (PFSW) is formally extending an offer to Winnipeg School Division (WSD) to help livestream its board meeting tonight if WSD is once again unable to figure out a technical solution to the problem.
PFSW is a group of parents, education workers, and community activists who are organizing to remove police from schools. As recently reported on by the Winnipeg Free Press, the WSD board has repeatedly failed to livestream its meetings or post videos of the meeting online after the fact, despite the other five school boards in Winnipeg managing to do so.
The WSD’s explanation for this was “we don’t have the technology to be able to broadcast.” This is an odd claim given that the school division, the largest in the province, started livestreaming its meetings in 2015 following a requirement by the province to improve transparency. Given that all that is required to livestream a meeting is a smartphone with an internet connection, PSFW is offering to send a member of the group to the meeting to livestream it to the group’s YouTube channel so that people can watch it.
Public meetings should be made accessible at all times, especially during a global pandemic that greatly restricts the ability for people to attend and participate. The WSD board is in the process of debating many important issues, including the presence of police in schools and the renaming of a school currently named after a white supremacist. It is incumbent on the board to ensure that parents, education workers, students, and community members can watch these debates.
If invited to attend and livestream the meeting, the PSFW member will closely follow all public health recommendations including wearing a mask and socially distancing, as well as any other requirements the board may desire. The resulting video will be available on the group’s YouTube channel for anyone to watch or share.
For more info or to arrange an interview about this, contact policefreeschoolswpg@gmail.com.
WSD to review its police-in-schools program participation (Winnipeg Free Press, 10/6/20)
Watch delegate presentations to Winnipeg City Council (9/30/20)
Group calling for removal of police from schools (Global News, 9/29/20)
Watch delegate presentations to the Winnipeg Police Board (9/24/20)
On September 30th, Winnipeg City Council votes on a new School Resource Officer contract. This agreement has not been properly debated, because the voices of communities most affected by policing have not yet been heard.
Sign our petition to demand a report reviewing SRO programs across Canada!
Police Free Schools Winnipeg wants SROs out of schools (CBC Up to Speed, 9/17/20)
Community group calls for police officers to be removed from Winnipeg schools (CBC News, 9/17/20)
Alarms raised about Winnipeg police-in-schools program (Winnipeg Free Press, 9/17/20)
Police in school programs become Canadian issue (Winnipeg Free Press, 9/17/20)
Cops in Schools Could End (Manitoba Post, 9/18/20)
Winnipeg group calling for an end to police officers in schools (CTV News, 9/17/20)
Community group calls for police-free schools (CityNews, 9/15/20)