SD61 Board Denies Motion to Suspend School Policing
CONTACT
Dominique Jacobs,
Communications and Resource Development Coordinator
Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Color
250-277-2545
domi@sniwwoc.ca
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SD61 BOARD DENIES MOTION TO SUSPEND SCHOOL POLICING:
The Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Color led a weekend letter-writing campaign for concerned SD61 parents who want to suspend the School Liaison Officer program until further review. After receiving a flood of letters, the Board of Trustees denied the motion.
Victoria, British Columbia. June 24, 2020: The events of the past few weeks have shed light on incidents of police brutality around the world and in Canada. As parents, we want schools to feel welcome and safe for all children. This is not the case for many Black, Indigenous, and racialized students who do not feel safe at schools with a police presence.
On Monday, June 22, members of the Greater Victoria School Board were presented with a motion to suspend the School Liaison Officer (SLO) program pending review. The motion failed. Voting summary, below:
IN FAVOUR (of SLO suspension):
Diane McNally
Ryan Painter
Rob Paynter
OPPOSED:
Jordan Watters
Nicole Duncan
Tom Ferris
Angie Hentze
Elaine Leonard
Ann Whiteaker
Police departments in the region disproportionately target Black, Indigenous, and poor people. Data on this issue has been collected locally and is widely available. Students are not exempt from these experiences of racial discrimination.
Despite this fact, Trustee Whiteaker said that she had not seen any “real data” to back up our claims. Her response is disheartening because we expect all school trustees to do their due diligence after receiving 30-40 letters from concerned parents. Whiteaker dismisses the letters as “form letters”. Trustee Hentze’s comments indicating only “positive experiences” of the program is misguided. Considering an important motion was on the table, school trustees did not connect with racialized students or parents to gain their input on the issue.
Whiteaker and Hentze called the suggestion to suspend the program "incredibly offensive” which is dismissive of the experiences of students and parents, who have advocated for them. Hentze refers to the efforts of parents as a “mob email.”
Universally, email campaigns are used to convey the importance of an issue to elected officials. Equating this important communication from parents to that of a “mob” is shameful and leads us to question Hentze’s decision-making process as a Trustee.
Trustees claim to have no data on the success of the program, but heard from many concerned parents. Why would they allow the program to continue? Asking students to prove their trauma, with “real data”, after many parents have contacted the board in this regard, is callous and unnecessarily harmful. It is not the safe and welcoming school environment that parents wish to foster for their children.
The disparaging comments from Trustees, Hentze and Whittaker, prove that their priority is not inclusion and well-being for all children, but rather the means of communication, “form letters”, that their parents used to convey their discomfort with the SLO program.
The Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Color call for the Board to revisit this motion in their next meeting. We call for the Board to listen to the concerns of the students and parents of their schools. We call for the Board to do their due diligence and acquire “the data” before denying a motion that has negative consequences for its racialized population.
FURTHER RESOURCES BELOW:
https://www.needsmorespikes.com/blog/2019/11/keeping-police-out-of-victoria-and-esquimalt-schools
https://twitter.com/step_harrison/status/1237163561744396288
https://twitter.com/step_harrison/status/1247311920190775296