Cops coming to more schools

Two North York schools will see increased police presence come September.

Earl Haig SS and Northview Heights are among the 20 schools that join the existing 30 who are already participating in the joint partnership between police and Toronto’s public and catholic school boards. Designated schools across the city now have uniformed officers stationed there full-time during the school year.

York Centre public school trustee James Pasternak said he was initially hesitant when the controversial program was first introduced to the school board. Now he said he’s pleased to get an additional officer at Northview after seeing the positive influence it’s had at Downsview SS.

“The officer there fit in with the school population almost instantly,” he said. “He developed tremendous rapport with the student body as well as the staff and parents,” he said.

Some skeptics say having police officers in the school sends the wrong message to students and the surrounding community.

“I think the initial confusion was over the role they would play and the symbol there that we might be sending, that (the school) is not a safe place,” Pasternak said.

“Once that was clarified and once the program started going forward, then you could see quite clearly that the role the officer played almost like a mentoring role within the school.”

Apart from participating in school activities, the school resource officer visited classrooms to teach students about safety.

“There was even a situation in which one of the students at Downsview was known to the officer and there were initial concerns about that,” recounted Pasternak.

“A meeting was arranged with the family and the officer and it turned out to be almost like a healing circle in a way.”

The trustee is so pleased with the program he said he’s going to suggest the board look at doing the same thing in lower grades.

“I think we should really be looking at the middle schools as a place to station some of these officers because the middle school can be a more difficult time for discipline and an important time to have a mentor right there in the school,” he said.

Willowdale public school trustee Mari Rutka was a supporter of the program from the beginning and agreed to have an officer stationed at Newtonbrook, near Yonge St. and Steeles Ave. West for the 2008–2009 school year. She said it made sense to add an officer at Earl Haig for next year because the Sheppard Ave. and Yonge St. area high school boasts one of the largest student bodies in Toronto.

She agreed police are seen in a more positive light among students in school hallways.

“I know from having heard him say it that (Police) Chief Bill Blair was very much interested in getting away from that image: it only means trouble if there’s a cop car,” Rutka said. “It could just mean they’re involved with the neighbourhood and … they’re actually interacting in a positive way with the young people around.”