New Westminster school district votes to immediately cancel police liaison program
Children walk with their parents to Sherwood Park Elementary in North Vancouver for the first day back to school, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward April 28, 2021 - 7:04 AM
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. - A second school district in British Columbia has ended a program that put uniformed officers in its elementary, middle and secondary schools, but trustees are not rejecting further links with police.
New Westminster school board members voted Tuesday night to immediately end the district s child and youth liaison officer program due to concerns that armed officers could be disturbing to racialized or LGBTQ youth.
New Westminster school district cancels police liaison program - BC News castanet.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from castanet.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
VANCOUVER A second school district in British Columbia has ended a program that put uniformed officers in its elementary, middle and secondary schools, but trustees are not rejecting further links with police. New Westminster school board members voted Tuesday night to immediately end the district s child and youth liaison officer program due to concerns that armed officers could be disturbing to racialized or LGBTQ youth. A letter from the board to the chief of the New Westminster Police says cancellation of the program is not a reflection on the department or its staff. The letter says the board looks forward to working with the force to develop a new relationship.
On Monday night, trustee Jennifer Reddy opposed the motion. This motion doesn t go far enough to be unequivocally clear that, in fact, school liaison officers, police will be removed from schools. It spends more time delineating what the next steps of working with police in our schools will be, much of which is already covered in our own protocol, said Reddy.
She said the board started to review the SLO program, and trustees had agreed to centre the voices of students, but she pointed out the motion centres the Vancouver Police Department and RCMP in its very next step.
The motion goes on to say that the VSB will continue to work with Vancouver police and RCMP to establish communication protocols to deal with emergencies, lockdowns and violent threats, and determine processes to ask for help with information sessions to deal with gang prevention, restorative justice, stranger danger and internet safety.
VANCOUVER The Vancouver School Board could decide the fate of the long-running School Liaison Officer program during a meeting on Monday night. The SLO program puts police officers in Vancouver s elementary and secondary schools. According to the Vancouver Police Department website, school liaison officers deliver crime prevention lessons, counsel and talk informally to students, and investigate criminal offences relating to the schools. The program has been under review for close to a year, after high-profile instances of police brutality in the United States sparked conversations around the role of police in the community. Several community groups, including some teachers, are calling for VPD officers to be removed from the city s schools.