Progress has been made to improve the relationship between Collingwood and Blue Mountains OPP and the Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB), according to the force’s detachment commander.
Following the SCDSB and Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board cancelling police-led classes in their schools in 2022, the relationship between police forces across Simcoe County and the boards have been strained, with councils across the county sending letters to the school boards, pleading to re-instate the programs.
The move marked the end of a long-standing arrangement between various police partners across the county and the two boards.
“I’m happy to say that things have been going much better with the SCDSB this year,” Collingwood OPP detachment commander Insp. Loris Licharson said recently.
Following meetings between Collingwood OPP and leadership from the public board this past fall, Licharson notes a shift in the relationship, and said things have been “more positive and productive.”
He said the force has worked through barriers and structures, which has improved communication and provided clarity for all parties.
“This, in turn, has allowed the local relationships we have with our schools themselves to flourish, and we are now able to work individually with our school principals and provide whatever support they need,” he said.
Student resource officers (SROs) and police-led programming were cancelled by both the public and Catholic school boards in the spring of 2023.
Both boards claimed the programs had been put on hold during the pandemic, with the SCDSB saying that began for the 2021-22 school year. That was only a few months after presentations from two different parent groups in June 2021 calling for the dissolution of police programs in schools.
More recently, the group Policing-Free Schools wrote a letter to trustees of the public board in support of the decision to cancel regular police programming.
While police-led programming and community safety officers who walked the halls of high schools were cancelled, police were still permitted in schools by invitation for programs such as lockdown practices, safety patrol training, bicycle and traffic safety, digital safety presentations, presentations to secondary school law classes and participation in charity and career-focused events.
That protocol has not changed.
However, Licharson notes an uptick in how often OPP in Collingwood are being invited into schools, and said they are happy to help in any way they are able.
“We are still not able to provide OPP KIDS or other curriculum-based or structured police programming, but I’m very happy to say that things are much better and more open than they were last year,” he said.
Licharson also said that the current Collingwood OPP school resource officers — Const. Christine Dineen and Const. Trevor McKean — have worked hard to build and maintain relationships with students over the years.
“We are all seeing the benefits of those efforts now,” he said.
There was no mention of any change to the board's policies regarding police in schools during the SCDSB program standing committee meeting on March 20.
When contacted last month regarding police in schools, Sarah Kekewich, manager of communications for the public board, confirmed the list of permitted police programs and services in schools.
“(Board representatives) have been meeting with police chiefs across the county to discuss this important partnership and the police/school board protocol,” said Kekewich.
While “the SCDSB will continue to welcome police in schools,” on this limited basis, Kekewich reiterated that police-led programming such as OPP KIDS “had been discontinued,” because board resources had been dedicated to the delivery of that content including through their mental health and well-being as well as the student achievement departments.
“Police-led programs that were paused during the (COVID-19) pandemic were assessed and determined to be duplication of school programs,” she said.
Questions sent to the school board asking why the board is allowing officers to return to schools, whether the decision is board-wide and whether the decision was influenced by letters asking for the return from the councils of Bradford West Gwillimbury, Collingwood, Wasaga Beach, Adjala-Tosorontio and Simcoe County, were not directly answered.
— With files from Michael Owen
