Posts Tagged ‘Guns in Schools’
Armed Officers in 27 Toronto Schools? – I don’t like the sound of this.
It looks like the Toronto District School Board is going to be authorizing police to wear their weapons (on purpose) inside it’s schools.
I hate guns. All guns. I don’t care who owns it, I don’t like it. Police need to have them, and I understand that, but they do not need to have them in environments filled with young people, and large crowds. There is a real possibility for an officer’s gun to pose a hazard to someone who comes to school everyday in hopes of getting good enough marks to get out of there and decide what they want to do with their life.
When I was in high school the police in conjunction with all of Toronto’s school boards created a program called “Empowered Student Partnerships” that encouraged cooperation between students and police on issues identified within local schools. Student committees would address the issues their peers identified through awareness campaigns, assemblies and guest speakers. The program stressed a true partnership between the police and students.I was the student lead on the Wilfrid Laurier C.I committee, and the 42 Division representative to the central ESP committee. It served as an opportunity to allow students with a desire to help their community start the process of doing so. This to me is a positive alternative to policing in an area that just is not right for frequent patrols.
The University of Toronto has it’s own uniformed police force made up of Toronto Police officers assigned to the campus. They do not ever carry weapons though. U of T is in the heart of the downtown core, and police on patrol do not carry arms. If things get too hot, they call their friends at the local division to come by. That is the way it should be.
Consider the density of young people, filled with promise, hopes and dreams that can be found in a high school or on campus, and then consider the potential risks of anyone having a gun in that environment. It just doesn’t fit. The Special Constables on the TTC are not armed and neither are the Toronto Community Housing Security officers. In each of these situations there has been a conscious decision to remove the use of lethal weapons from officers serving these communities.
I am of the opinion that armed officers in schools will not change the dynamic of violence. Just like risks of suspensions or zero tolerance failed to as well. But the potential for a negative impact to be felt by students who will on a daily basis have a visual reminder of their school being unsafe, and perhaps seeing the police as there to watch them is real and could cause longer term problems.
There is already a huge disconnect between what goes on in school and what the world around us considers appropriate. The reality is people have far more rights in society than they do in school already. When was the last time the authorities came to your house and did a “random closet check”? or someone told you whether or not you were allowed to wear your coat or hat at that particular time? I cannot even begin to describe the response I would have if I was expected to tolerate these things as an adult. Perhaps that is because, I simply would not.
Having police with guns in schools regularly will make this divide between society and school far more apparent. It would be easy to excuse those who felt that having armed police acting as hall monitors would provide a prison feel to school, a feeling many students have already without uniformed officers. I’m sure the visual alone will make that easy to do.
What’s more is this decision is a huge step back from the successes of Empowered Student Partnerships which also gave police a far better image in the eyes of students. I fear this could further harm the image of the police in communities that need their support the most. With ESP it was easy to say they were on our side, there to help us make our environment more safe. A guy with a gun on a patrol is not there to help you make your environment more safe, he is there to enforce safety, clearly with the tools to go as far as the situation calls for.
I think this decision needs to be reconsidered, and if you do too, please write your school trustee as all but two of them supported this decision.
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