Canada’s largest school board has decided police officers will no longer be posted in any of its high schools. Trustees at the Toronto District School Board voted Wednesday night to pull the plug on its controversial school resource officer (SRO) program.The decision, greeted with cheers from a packed boardroom, was in response to feedback from students, parents and the community who warned the regular presence of armed police officers on school grounds has undermined some of the city’s most vulnerable youth. The decision means officers posted to 45 TDSB high schools last year will not return there for regular duties. They had not been in schools this year because the board suspended the SRO program in August pending its review.The decision Wednesday followed recommendations earlier this month from TDSB staff, who called for termination of the program based on results of a six-week review and input from thousands of students, staff, parents and community members. It included surveys completed by 15,500 students with police in their schools.While a majority of teens reported being satisfied with the SRO program, or had no opinion, staff concluded the thousands who did say that having officers at school made them feel uncomfortable, intimidated and targeted were far too significant to dismiss.While 57 per cent said having police in school made them feel safer, 46 per cent said they weren’t sure they wanted the program to continue. But 1,715 (11 per cent) said the presence of an officer intimidated them and 2,207 — or 14 per cent — said they felt watched and targeted as a result.The staff report, applauded by groups like Black Lives Matter, the Urban Alliance on Race Relations and others who wanted officers removed from schools, was unanimously endorsed by the TDSB’s planning and priorities committee last week following a parade of delegates who appeared before them to support the move. They argued the presence of armed police wa ...
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