Ottawa police program gives officers timely info to help each school, SRO head says

The Ottawa police program that places officers in schools is important because it allows police to become familiar with each school's differing environment to better meet their needs, says the head of the 20-year-oldprogram.

"Every school is in a different environment, in a different geographic location, has different issues," Supt. Jamie Dunlop told CBC Ottawa. "Having an officer that's responsible just for that location is very important for a more timely response."

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDS) is holding consultations on police intervention in schools, which includes reviewing the school resource officer program (SRO).

• OCDSB starts community consultations on police officers in schools

The public consultations comeafter debates last summer, when OCDSB trustee Lyra Evans put forward a motion to get rid of the SROs at Ridgemont and Gloucester high schools. They are the only SROs paid for by the school board and the only ones whowork at schools full time.

Asilu Collective, which was founded by three former Merivale High School students, was created in May 2020 specifically to address police presence in Ottawa schools.

The group said it has heard from many students,especially Black and Indigenous students, that the presence of police in the halls can cause stress and fear that couldleadto a poor learning environment.

Hailey Dash, one of the co-founders, said Asilu Collective disagrees with the premise of community policing because she said students who come from diverse communities already feel over-policed, and that's only reinforced by having an SRO in school.

"These youth are already being surveilled and over-policed in their communities. And so with an SRO at theirschool, that's just more policing," she said.

The group wants to see all four boards, including the OCDSB, end their relationships with the Ottawa Police Service and instead invest money into the root causes of issues that lead toviolence and other problems.

"We have been advocating for things like trauma informed counselling, free meal programs at schools, more resources in the schools that students have asked for," said Dash.

She said she attended one of the consultation sessions this week and heard the other two for Somali- and Arabic- speaking families went well and were "very healing, just because of the people they're surrounded with and having kind of a safe space to talk about these issues that everyone can relate to."

Dunlop said the police service doesn't want to interfere in the review, butconsulting on programs is important and hopes the school board takes into account information from "all students and all parents."