"The conditions before me today, other than the impact to health, do not cause fear in me. For the consequences associated with doing the right thing, whatever that right thing is, I will wear proudly with a badge of honour."
"I'm going to go to my own school board meeting and I'm going to do that which is right, rightful and righteous."
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Quartz
The third largest number of new coronavirus infections last week fell to the state of Florida. Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order meant to bar local officials from mandating mask wearing in the state's school system and elsewhere. Mask-wearing, declared the Republican governor, represented a personal choice not o be imposed by authorities, but one that parents of students should decide for themselves on a one-by-one basis.
The Florida Board of Education voted unanimously that Broward and Alachua counties should be punished for having mandated masks in their schools, directly defying the governor's order. As such they represent the first to be 'punished' though to date no actions have been taken against them. COVID-19 deaths in the United States have seen a five-month high, despite which state and local authorities continue to spar over requirements of mask-wearing in the face of the highly contagious Delta coronavirus strain's wide reach.
Approval from the Miami-Dade County Public Schools motivated Superintendent Carvalho, requiring the district's 360,000 students to wear face coverings despite Governor DeSantis' ban on such mandates. Measures to exempt those students with medical needs were to be part of the initiative. The total reported deaths on Tuesday soared to over a thousand people. Far exceeding the daily average of 769 deaths over the past month.
The Delta variant's spread completely disrupted the new school year in some southern states, pushing new cases to a six-month high of over 100,000 daily, over the past dozen days. Close to 5,600 students and over 300 employees at a single school district in Tampa were in isolation or quarantine after having been exposed to COVID-19 or becoming infected with the virus.
"We got information on Tuesday that was reported to us. I know of
three of those teachers that passed away from COVID in Broward County. I was also told that they were unvaccinated."
"But there are a lot of people that have still not gotten the
vaccination. And it is becoming a deadly thing for them not
to be vaccinated."
"You need to get vaccinated. This disease will kill you
or leave with you a lifelong complication that not only impacts you but
also impacts your family and the people that you love and care about."
"The eight of us on our board are adamant that we cannot have people in
schools without masks, because we are living
a backlash of people dying with COVID."
"You can't take a risk with peoples' lives. We feel
strongly that the lives of our students and staff are invaluable, and
we're not willing to play Russian roulette with their lives or take a
risk of losing people because we have people in schools without masks."
Broward County School Board Chair Rosalind Osgood
A fleet of Broward County School buses are parked in a lot on July 21,
2020, in Florida. Three educators in the county died within 24 hours of
each other from COVID-19 related complications. (Johnny Louis/Getty
Images)
Europe, Under Islamist Threat, Forced on Its Back Foot
Europe, Under Islamist Threat, Forced on Its Back-Foot
"We must be able to discuss topics such as freedom of expression in our classrooms without any outside pressure."
"It
may hurt when someone has an opinion that conflicts with your world
view or religious conviction, but they have a right to say so in all
liberty."
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte
"We
are ready to accept every Tunisian, but with conditions preserving the
dignity and giving him rights to access to all stages of judicial
appeals in France before the deportation [in discussions of security
matters between France and Tunisia; the deportation of dozens of
Tunisian migrants]."
Tunisian Interior Minister Taoufik Charfeddine
Muslim demonstrators hold placards during a protest
against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad in
Charlie Hebdo in London (photo credit: REUTERS)
Police
in Germany Friday announced raids they had carried out on the homes and
offices of four individuals they had linked to the 20-year-old man who
launched an attack in Austria. German intelligence had sent a request to
Austria to have them monitor several Germans who had met with Kujtim
Fejzulai, the Islamist attacker shot dead after he killed four people
and wounded over 20 others after opening fire in the central nightlife
district of Vienna on Monday night.
The
Germans had visited Austria this summer and their contacts had been
monitored by German intelligence. Austrian authorities made no move to
alter their risk assessment of Fejzulal, on early release from prison
with a 22-month sentence for attempting to join the Islamic State, but
turned back to France by Turkish authorities. Enrolled in a
deradicalization course in prison, he was considered to have been
effectively deradicalized, earning himself early release.
Police searches near Hamburg in homes and business premises.
According to Austria's Interior Minister Nehammer, "immediate personnel consequences"
had resulted over the botched heads-up over Fejzulai when Erich
Zwettier, head of the local intelligence office in Vienna had resigned.
Mr. Nehammer admitted to "intolerable mistakes" in
tracking the suspect prior to his deadly shooting spree. As a result of
which he ordered the closing of mosques Austrian intelligence now deems
a security risk.
Fejzulai,
born in Vienna, held a North Macedonian passport; his parents had
emigrated from Macedonia to Austria, accounting for the North Macedonian
passport in Fejzulai's possession, as well as an Austrian passport. He
had planned the attack in the knowledge that residents of Vienna would
be out enjoying the last hours before the onset of a new coronavirus
lockdown and curfew. His coordinated actions as he carried an automatic
rifle, handgun and knife took him to six discrete sites in a matter of
eight minutes where he killed four people and injured others, before he
was himself shot dead nine minutes after he began his deadly spree.
Austria's
security services have come under close scrutiny, particularly as it
emerged on Thursday that Austrian authorities had been warned by their
Slovakian counterparts in July of Fejzulai's attempts to acquire
ammunition there, for an assault rifle; a "communication"
problem accounted for the lack of action on Austria's part, according
to Minister Nehammer. A mosque and an Islamic centre that Fejzulai was
known to frequent were closed on Friday, with Integration Minister
Suzanne Raab stating that institutions which are "hotbeds for the blind hatred and violence we experience(d) on Monday" are slated for closure.
Last month, an assailant who shouted "Allahu akbar!"
as he beheaded a woman and attacked and killed two other people with a
knife in a church in Nice placed France on high alert. A 21-year-old
Tunisian had arrived by ship to Lampedusa, a popular Italian island
entry point to Europe for migrants from Africa. He was ordered to return
to Tunisia but made his way to Nice instead, where he planned for and
carried out his deadly attack.
People hold a photo of the history teacher Samuel Paty , who was
beheaded last week, during a memorial march in homage to him, Tuesday,
Oct.20, 2020 in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, northwest of Paris. (AP
Photo/Lewis Joly)
This
followed the beheading murder of French middle-school teacher Samuel
Paty who had received threats from some of the parents of his students
after he made use of a Charlie Hebdo satirical cartoon mocking the
Prophet Mohammad, in a civics class on French values and freedom of
speech. His murderer, a man of Chechen origins living in France, had set
out to avenge the prophet after a video produced by a Muslim parent
circulated within the Muslim community, identifying the teacher and his
school.
Now,
in the Netherlands a Rotterdam teacher has been forced into hiding as a
result of a classroom discussion of the killing of Samuel Paty. Police
arrested a female teen on suspicion of inciting threats against the
Dutch teacher. Messages were posted on social media, though it was
unclear whether the 18-year-old was a student at the Emmauscollege high
school where the class debate occurred. Dutch Prime Minister Rutte spoke
of the threats as "absurd" and "intolerable".
Two 18-year-old men and a 17-year-old girl were charged Friday with
"criminal terrorist conspiracy" in the murder of French history teacher
Samuel Paty, a judicial source told news agency AFP.
That
class discussion took place as a result of schools in the Netherlands,
France and Germany being requested to hold a moment of silence for Paty
whose death in October shocked the world community. On Monday, during a
classroom discussion at the Emmauscollege, students had taken note of a
bulletin board-posted cartoon that had been in place for years. Among
the students, some took offence at its presence, a cartoon that won a
national prize in 2015, showing a decapitated figure labelled "Charlie Hebdo" sticking out its tongue at a bearded man with a bloody sword.
Soon
afterward a photo of the cartoon began circulating on social media, and
by Tuesday the teacher who led the discussion began receiving threats,
compelling him to go into hiding even as police became involved. That
same day a school in a Paris suburb was reported by Le Monde as having received threats against another teacher, leading to the school being closed.
The Tewhid mosque in Vienna | Georg Hochmuth/AFP via Getty Images
Could There Conceivably Be A More Contentious Issue?
"It
has never been 100 percent safe to send children to school. There's
always been a risk of contracting some infectious disease, whether it's
the flu, the Norovirus or other viruses." "Children are at risk of being injured ... and suffering mental and physical harm from bullying." "But
of course we can manage these risks and put mitigating factors in place
to deal with them. This is exactly the kind of approach we have to take
now." Dr.Ronald Cohn, CEO, Sick Children's Hospital, Toronto
Experts say recent data shows children are not the super-spreaders of COVID-19 they initially believed they would be. (Erik White/CBC)
The conundrum of all the most difficult choices any society could
possibly face; how best to safeguard the nation's children from the
opportunistic clutches of a new, mysterious disease that has wrought
havoc the world over, and still allow those children to experience as
normal a childhood and education opportunities as possible? There is
never any complete agreement on any issue; there are always supporters
and detractors of perceived solutions, and in this instance there are
both, as might be expected.
Canada's largest and most prestigious hospital specializing in care for
children has issued a new report, one that the country will look upon as
an instruction manual on how to proceed in re-opening classrooms at
every level of education, and at the same time exercise due caution in
the interests of protecting one of the most vulnerable demographics in
any society. The report emphasizes the need to return children to the
classroom if for no other reason, aside from attaining an
age-appropriate education, than to continue their socialization and
ensure sound mental health ensues.
The advice contained in the report will of necessity be a surprise to
some and disturbing to others, while being greeted as a welcome solution
by yet others. Greater incidents of infection could be a result of
requiring students to wear face masks; separating children while they
socialize outside the classroom would result in negative psychological
effects, although maintaining a discreet distance between student desks
is advanced, along with the cancellation of assemblies.
Jurisdictions in East Asia, as an example, the first to be confronted
with the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19, took an entirely different,
infinitely more rigidly protective view on how to manage the safety of
children returning to school following the first wave of the global
pandemic. Hospital experts in Toronto informed a virtual news conference
with the release of the report that children have suffered anxiety,
depression and loneliness, facing a heightened risk of family discord
and abuse throughout the lockdown period.
SickKids report warns against stringent measures Ashley Fraser/Postmedia
Those same experts stressed that the psychological benefits of resuming
in-person classes in the coming usual school fall resumption period
outweigh COVID-19 risks, particularly in alignment with frequent
handwashing and ensuring that ill children remain at home. According to
an Australian report on the experience of reopening schools, few cases
of the coronavirus were found among students, with no evidence of
students being a vector for adult infection: "Children are not the primary drivers of COVID-19 spread".
"That
seems like the easiest of wins, especially for older kids; [urging
public health authorities to decree mask use in certain public places
mandatory as a key practise in curbing the spread of the virus]." "My nieces are 11 and 13. They live in Massachusetts. They are required to mask. It's not a big deal." "This
whole document reeks of the kind of laissez-faire approach that got us
into trouble with long-term care facilities and which now has Sweden in
so much trouble." "The complete lack of thought given to the role schools may play in amplifying disease that kills adults is just astounding." "If
you wanted to create super-spreader events, the way to do it would be
to gather large groups indoors and have them sing, as this document
appears to countenance." Dr.David Fisman, head, epidemiology division, school of public health, University of Toronto
Virtual learning could be offered for immunosuppressed. (Juliya Shangarey/Shutterstock)
"In
young children in particular, masks can be irritating and may lead to
increased touching of the face and eyes which could increase the risk of
infection." "Strict
physical distancing should not be emphasized to children in the school
setting as it is not practical and could cause significant psychological
harm." "Close interaction, such as playing and socializing, is central to child development and should not be discouraged." Sick Children's Hospital Report
Children, emphasizes Dr.Cohn, despite earlier indications, do not seem to be "super-spreaders"
of COVID-19. It seems more evident on the other hand that it is adults
who tend to infect young people. Schools, in his considered opinion, are
not at all likely to become a significant amplifier of COVID-19. Recent
research appears to downplay the potential of children being major
vectors for the coronavirus. British scientists produced a paper citing
family clusters of cases indicating children to rarely be recognized as
the instigator: "At the current time, children do not appear to be super-spreaders".
"[Keeping children out of school has already caused] significant adverse consequences." "Parents are telling me their children are struggling with the lack of routine and structure." "Children are sad, irritable, clingy and lonely." Dr.Catherine Birken, pediatrician
"We
are working closely with the best medical and scientific leaders in
Canada -- including the Hospital for Sick Children and the COVID-19
Command Table -- to develop health protocols that keep our schools
safe." "We will take a cautious approach that underscores our complete commitment to safety." Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce
Dr. Michelle Science says steps should be taken to ensure
some physical distancing in schools, but trying to enforce safe
distances among kids is impractical. (Ben Nelms/CBC)
"On Tuesday Global Affairs confirmed that Canadian funds have been applied by UNRWA to hire someone to monitor staff conduct and review school curricula to ensure they meet appropriate standards." "In other words, it would seem that UNRWA is getting money from Canada to police itself." "I have spoken recently with many experts who have devoted their professional careers to assessing UNRWA operations and effectiveness. All report that UNRWA does not allow any third party oversight of its curriculum, aside from 'government officials' where the school is located [so, for example, Hamas authorities in Gaza, or Palestinian Authority officials in the West Bank]." "I am certain you are familiar with the UN Charter, in particular Article 101(3), which requires that all UN staff uphold the highest standards of integrity, a quality that includes fairness and impartiality. This 'neutrality' standard is reiterated in staff regulations for UNRWA and UN staff and is published on the UNRWA website. Yet, the evidence is blindingly clear that UNRWA has not lived up to this standard." Vivian Bercovici, formerly Canadian ambassador to Israel (2014 to 2016)
"There will be enhanced due diligence applied to UNRWA funding ... a very robust oversight and reporting framework, which includes regular site visits and strong anti-terrorism provisions...." Canadian Minister of International Development, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Ottawa
A
masked Palestinian boy demonstrates martial arts maneuvers with a
plastic gun March 5, 2004 in the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza
Strip. Abid Katib/Getty Images
UNRWA, the UN agency that has been in operation since December 1949 -- a unique agency unlike all other United Nations refugee groups, with its extensive mandate ensuring that Palestinian refugee status will never end and nor will that of their descendants, now numbering in the multiple millions from the original 700,000 who fled Israel to await its destruction at the hands of the approaching combined military forces of its Arab neighbours -- is a great employer of Palestinians to carry out its mandate.
Hamas, as an example, which viciously wrested control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority's Fatah party and whose mandate calls for the destruction of Israel, as does Fatah's though somewhat less raucously, provides the locally engaged component of aid delivery overseen by the United Nations. It is the Palestinian influence on UNRWA's administration that sees school curricula teaching Palestinian children to hate Israel, viewing it as a usurping alien presence forcefully denying Palestinians their geographic birthright.
For Palestinians Israel has no existence, simply an inexplicable malevolent presence that must be destroyed by violent resistance. Palestinian children are taught by their schools and their popular media to view Jews as vicious oppressors and that it is their duty to view the martyrs in their community who have attacked and killed Jews and died in the process as heroic, whose actions they should emulate to become celebrated martyrs themselves. Hamas operates 'summer camps' to teach Palestinian children how to conduct warfare.
As for the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and the funding it receives through UN transfers receiving financial support from member-states to benefit the Palestinians, the reality is that funding is earmarked to subsidize the murder of Israeli Jews. Those Palestinians, old and young, male and female, who respond to the PA incitement to violence against Jews can be assured that their families will be well taken care of through financial support suitable in reflecting their sacrifice for the 'cause' of Palestine, and that their status as celebrated heroes results from that same martyrdom sacrifice.
UNRWA has substantial supportive ties with Hamas. It is a well settled fact affirmed by both NGOs and the media that UNRWA donations to the Palestinians support incitement to violence against Israel, and that UNRWA and its locally engaged staff make use of social media with anti-Semitic slurs and the invitation to Palestinians to participate in terror attacks as loyal Palestinians determined to see their version of justice become reality. That version requires the elimination of the State of Israel to accommodate the rise of the State of Palestine.
"Officers in schools, in uniform, create a safer learning environment and foster relationships between the police and young people." "Partnerships like the ones we develop with schools are at the core of the service's modernization efforts to move toward a neighbourhood-centric model of policing." Meaghan Gray, spokeswoman, Toronto Police Services
"In the face of this data [report from staff at Toronto District School Board] we have a clear duty to act on behalf of our students, and address the concerns they have brought to our attention." "Staff will continue to work with police in order to build a partnership [with police] that honours the voices of all students." "[It is the board's priority] to mitigate against the differentiated and discriminatory impact of the School Resource Officer [SRO] program." Toronto District School Board "When someone sees you talking to the police, they think you are a snitch. "And that's if. Your life is over." Unnamed student "It's good [to have uniformed police in the school] in case there is a serious situation where someone could get dangerously injured." "SROs don't really harass people in the school. They ask you what is the problem." Unnamed student
The School Resource Officers program was launched in 2008,
one year after Grade 9 student Jordan Manners was shot and killed at
C.W. Jeffreys Collegiate. He was 15. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)
The problem is that there is a problem and the solution that appeared to work very well, has been rejected by the very students that represent the problem, while the students who benefit from the presence of police have had their opinions stifled. All it takes is one dissenting voice, irrespective of the obvious that the dissenter represents a minority whose actions have brought the police presence into the schools as a preventive measure, to begin with.
This is the era of political correctness. So the fact that among the black community gangs and illicit activities and anti-social behaviour is a threat to the majority of students' safety requires mediation of a type that will influence the outcome toward safety for both potential malefactors and their victims can be set aside in deference to the complaints of the aggressors, ignoring the needs of the victims, appears to give the appeasers great sanctimonious satisfaction.
No segment of any community appreciates being singled out as appearing to be a potential threat to the larger community.And because of course it is a group within a group in that the sociopathic action of a small percentage of the target group that is at fault, the entire group feels ill done by, through default association. In the black community of Toronto there is a penchant among youth to gravitate toward gangs, guns and drugs.
Violence erupts on occasion, sometimes lethal violence, and the black community in its entirety seems to close ranks instinctively. Not only are witnesses not available for police investigative aid, but the greater community is aggrieved that public attention is focused on them. Safety for students in the schools is an obvious concern for parents. And when an initiative was undertaken years ago to have uniformed police monitor schools and make themselves available in a preemptive capacity, tensions declined.
The police made an effort to present themselves as social peacemakers and intermediaries. They were there to help, to befriend, to offer advice and alternatives. The reason for their presence acknowledged, and inevitably a level of resentment occurs. A 15-year-old student was shot and killed at C.W. Jeffreys Collegiate Institute in 2007; a year later the School Resource Officer program was initiated. It has served as an effective preventive service since then.
A Toronto police officer chats to students at North Albion Collegiate in
2008, during the early days of the program to place officers in
schools. (STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)
It gave comfort and support to parents, it offered substantive assurances to students concerned about the proclivities of some students to anti-social activities. Threats declined, and a kind of truce was put in effect. Now, complaints from a number of students and general agreement from the black community to put an end to the program has resonated with the largest school board in the greater Toronto area, anxious to respond to criticism.
Rodney Diverlus of Black Lives Matter Toronto averred that his group, aggressively promoting action favourable to what the black community deems is equal treatment in the greater community, was "cautiously optimistic" school board trustees acceding to the report's recommendation that the SRO program represents a "reactionary measure" in response to a single incident. "This report has really corroborated many of the claims that parents, that youth and students in our community have been saying since the introduction of the SROs", he said. As far as Black Lives Matter is concerned, social workers, child behaviour therapists, hall monitors and increased faculty engagement with students would result in greater effectiveness responding to student needs.
On the other hand, the Toronto District School Board staff report declared their review had found the majority of those they surveyed held a positive impression of the program. Some, it notedm felt intimidated by the presence of a police officer in their school, while many others were unaware of the program and were completely unaffected by it. They still felt impelled to 'mitigate' what is perceived as a discriminatory program.
"[The decision to stop the SRO program] 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 was detrimental to many Black
youth, undocumented teens who felt threatened even though they have a
legal right to education, and other marginalized groups. Many proposed
that instead of having police on school property, the board should put
more resources toward hiring youth counsellors, social workers and
launching anti-racism programs." the star.com
Toronto Board Removing Police Officers From Schools -- Huffington Post
"Whereas the Falconer report, Roots of Youth Violence, recommended more caring adults in schools such as social workers, child and youth workers, hall monitors ..." Preamble, Falconer report
"Jordan's death led to the commissioning of a report on violence in
schools. The 2008 Falconer report concluded that there are firearms and
weapons in "non-trivial" numbers at some Toronto schools. The findings
of the report contributed to the formation of the School Resource
Officer program which placed Toronto police officers in some schools
around the city." The Globe and Mail
The Toronto District School Board has decided to suspend a program that
put armed police officers in 36 of its 75 schools. (Nathan
Denette/Canadian Press)
Racial profiling has such reprehensible connotations. To identify someone as suspicious because their appearance links them to menacing behaviours on the surface seems brutally uncivilized and certainly unfair, quite beyond discriminatory. That's the emotional, empathetic reaction to the fact that certain ethnic groups are routinely -- despite denials to the contrary -- linked to violence. On the other hand, how to react to the reality that within those typecast groups there are those, disproportionate to their presence within the larger society, who do pose as threats, who do engage in violent and threatening behaviour?
Little wonder that it's difficult to suspend vigilance while attempting to forestall threats recognized in the criminal activity that blacks, for example, are prone to in great numbers among the young, and the virulent, vicious nature of terrorism exemplified by Muslims who gravitate toward groups promoting jihad, prepared to launch bloodthirsty attacks in honour of the sacred screed that holds jihad the responsibility of all believers in Islam. Some groups in society such as First Nations peoples struggle with issues of alcoholism and drug dependency.
Those groups, engaging in petty criminal activities, in dealing drugs, in thefts, again disproportionate to their numbers in society, are over-represented in prisons. All of this represents issues of ethnic or religious profiling. But how could it be otherwise for alert authorities hoping through the vigilance of their intelligence agencies and policing agencies to forestall criminal activities, gang action, and terrorist threats? To do otherwise is to ignore the obvious and in so doing fail in the prevention of ongoing crime and threats to the stability of the country and security of its people.
Because Blacks, young black men in particular, are so given to petty crimes, drug dealing, gang activities, violence, threats and terrorizing those from within their own communities come from those communities, when crimes are committed witnesses refuse to come forward to assist police in stemming the threats and the violence. In Toronto, when a 15-year-old black student was shot to death by two 17-year-old students attending a high school in the Jane/Finch corridor known for its Black-on-Black violence, it became urgent to do something.
Toronto police services and the Toronto school board worked out an arrangement that would see police trained in dealing with youth regularly going into the schools to interact with students in an effort to persuade them that the police were not to be feared, distrusted or loathed in a civil society. And the program appeared to be getting its message across; the police learning to understand what drives young men to reject societal norms, and the young students being accustomed to regard police as arbiters of public safety and security.
And then came the entry of an aggressive Black counterprogram rejecting the advances made between civic authorities and the troubled Black community. Black Lives Matter may have had a point in lashing out against the vulnerability of young black men viewed in the aggregate as trouble-prone and dangerous. But their influence in a society that is anxious to atone for past sins against people of colour by excusing their excesses in the present has had and continues to have a deleterious effect in relations between Blacks and their other counterparts.
Now black activists decry the presence of police in schools through the program that has operated successfully for years in acquainting black youth with police, with the intention of instilling trust mutually and a sense of civil cooperation between the two. Their agitation has succeeded in persuading the Toronto District School Board to summarily halt the program, leading the situation back to square one.
Where consideration was given to the practicality of installing weapons detectors in schools, and bringing in gun-sniffing dog teams, and conducting random sweeps of student lockers at all city schools. Where sexual assaults might take place in random events. Where students and teachers struggled to cope with violence, drugs, guns and assorted weapons, and where gangs roamed the schools where they were students. And left school before graduation, finally graduating into the prison system.
The School Resource Officer program began in the 2008-2009 school year
after the tragic death of Jordan Manners at C.W. Jeffreys C.I. the year
before. (Pawel Dwulit/Toronto Star file photo / Toronto Star)
BlackLivesMatter TO@BLM_TOAug 31
Children do not need to be surveilled by cops in schools. What they need more of are Child and Youth Workers, guidance... #NoMoreSROs
BlackLivesMatter TO@BLM_TOAug 31
While this is not a full victory, it is a result of yrs of organising by parents, & students who have said "no cops in schools" #NoMoreSROs
BlackLivesMatter TO@BLM_TOAug 31
Police in schools don't make kids safer.https://tinyurl.com/y88kc6qv#NoMoreSROs#EducationNotIncarceration
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
