The Greater Victoria School District board’s wrong-headed conviction that police officers will frighten students if they are allowed routine access to schools has finally forced the B.C. government’s hand.
Education Minister Rachna Singh issued an unusual administrative directive Tuesday ordering the school board to produce an “updated student safety plan” in the next seven weeks. It has to deliver a progress report on the work by Oct. 1.
“We have heard concerns from the community and we share them,” Singh said.
The order was made after months of public and private appeals to the school trustees from government officials, police chiefs, youth crisis workers, municipal councils and NDP politicians — including Premier David Eby — failed to change the board’s mind on cancelling the school police liaison program.
Trustees voted in 2023 to abolish the program and ban officers from district schools out of concern the program was traumatizing Black, Indigenous and marginalized students. After lengthy consideration, they declared school police liaison officers “don’t meet the needs” of students and “undeniably, there are some students and staff who do not feel safe with police in schools.”
A steady parade of people and groups objected to the decision over the course of this year, including numerous representations from various groups the board was concerned about. All were rebuffed.
The directive does not specifically order reinstatement of the school police liaison program. But the scope of the directive suggests it was just one element of widespread serious shortcomings in the board’s attitude toward student safety.
While urging a reinstatement of the program that was suspended in 2018 for budget reasons, Victoria Police Chief Del Manak repeatedly cited a marked increase in gang infiltration and recruitment in local schools to the point that some families fled the community.
But the board dismissed it as just “potential gang activity.” Board chair Nicole Duncan said then the district was dedicated to comprehensive strategies that “prioritize prevention, intervention, on-going risk assessment and wraparound support.”
The Education Ministry is now requiring a new plan that will address gang activity, safety concerns, crime prevention and crisis response.
It must include a commitment “to improve the relationship between the board and the police.” The board’s stance over the past year was considered insulting to local police officers.
Also required is a trauma-informed approach to foster good relations between police and students and a description of “preventative approaches” to student safety. The liaison program was considered just that.
As a warning that the government will be watching the board carefully, any changes to the safety plan — which must be approved by the province — will require collaboration of the police and 60 days notice to the education minister.
It came after Singh and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth wrote the Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board last month advising that work was still underway to change the board’s mind.
The police board met just moments after the directive was issued Tuesday and Manak told them he was extremely pleased to see it.
“I feel this is a real game-changer.”
He said it provides clarity and direction to the Greater Victoria School District board and VicPD will be happy to work with the trustees to see the safety plan finished.
The school board’s decision to end the program and bar police from schools except in emergencies was a clear reversal of its stance in 2018 when the program was cancelled.
The board and the teachers union protested vehemently, praised the program and warned of negative long ranging impacts if it was cancelled.
But heightened concern about Indigenous reconciliation and a succession of fatal interactions with racial overtones involving U.S. police officers became an international issue over the past few years.
The teachers union and the closely aligned board’s attitudes towards police changed dramatically. The teachers union in 2023 supported cancelling the liaison program, saying, “the police and criminal justice systems have been founded on and continue to perpetuate systemic racism.”
B.C. human rights commissioner Kasari Govender joined the fray, urging all local school boards to halt such programs “until their impact can be established empirically.”
The school board could not be reached for comment. The trustees have successfully stonewalled officials at all levels and ignored dozens of calls in the past year to reinstate the program. It looks like that stance might have to change.
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