Teachers association president defends school police liaison decision to Victoria council

In May 2023, School District 61 (SD61) officially ended the school police liaison officer (SPLO) program.

At the end of February of this year, VicPD made an arrest in which they alleged the suspect had been recruiting for local gang activity at a SD61 secondary school. Since this time, public concern about youth gang recruitment has skyrocketed in the region because of VicPD’s public comments on the matter. 

Then, in a city council meeting on April 11th, the City of Victoria opted to write a letter to SD61 to request the program be reinstated.

On April 19th, SD61 announced they did not intend on reinstating the program and a few days later, VicPD Chief Del Manak expressed his disappointment in a letter of his own. 

On Thursday, April 25th, the President of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association (GVTA), Ilda Turcotte, provided a report to the city council on how SD61 came to the decision to end the program as the district has come under mass scrutiny regarding their methodology. 

Related:

• Saanich and Victoria asking SD61 to bring police back into schools with some changes
• Saanich and Victoria asking SD61 to bring police back into schools with some changes

Though Turcotte wrote the report, a presentation was given by the Secondary Vice President of the GVTA, Cindy Romphf. 

“The position on SPLOs by the GVTA, and subsequently by the Board of Trustees, was taken after a lengthy and challenging review process which included a review of research on SPLO programs, and voices from marginalized community members,” read Turcotte’s report. 

“It is the teachers’ position that programs formerly provided by SPLOs are more appropriately provided by educators, social workers, and public health workers with extensive and specialized training for working with children and youth.”

The report noted that the GVTA recognizes that gangs and gang recruitment have been of significant public concern. 

However, VicPD have not been able to provide historical data from any of these types of occurrences in schools making it impossible to determine whether there has genuinely been an increase in this activity in SD61 schools, or if any increase has been related to the removal of SPLOs. 

To support their findings, because some have accused SD61 of basing their decision purely on ideology rather than facts such as evidence-based research, credible sources and the voices of marginalized staff and students, Turcotte also provided the city council with supporting materials which are just some of what guided their decision making process. 

These items include:

• A report from the BC Civil Liberties Association on racial profiling
• Dignity in Schools recommendations titled Counselors Not Cops: Ending the Regular Presence of Law Enforcement in Schools
• An article in the International Journal of Drug Policy about police interactions with youth in Victoria
• A community report titled Racism in Greater Victoria by the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria
• The Policing in Schools report by the BC Teachers’ Federation 
• A report from the BC Office of the Human Rights Commissioner titled Racial disparities in British Columbia police statistics: A preliminary examination of a complex issue

Turcotte’s report also provided research-based deterrents to gang activity based off the BC Government’s Crime Prevention Document on Preventing Youth Involvement in Gangs which says that youths should be doing the following to stay out of gangs:

• Building strong family bonds
• Completing school
• Having a positive peer group 
• Creating and sustaining a positive social environment that surrounds them 
• Promoting social, economic and cultural policies and programs that support positive development 

One thing that Chief Manak brought up in his response was that in 2018 VicPD pulled SPLOs from schools to help bolster the number of officers patrolling the streets and at the time, SD61 requested that the program be reinstated. 

To this, Turcotte wrote that in 2018 when the SPLOs were pulled, it wound up saving the City of Victoria around $400,000.

She suggests in her report the City invest those funds elsewhere going forward and provided suggestions such as enhancing grants for after-school programming, creating arts and sports grants for youths, funding a district-based “teacher-counsellor”, funding a district-based public health nurse and enhancing funding for family counselling services. 

“These are the kinds of programs that research shows are protective of vulnerable youth, without being accompanied by the documented harms that are associated with SPLOs,” Turcotte explained. 

Turcotte concluded her report with a request that if a matter of this importance comes before council, that the GVTA be notified so they can provide the City with appropriate evidence and research that inform SD61’s decisions.