Ask those who know about police in schools

The Greater Victoria School Board’s cancellation of the police-school-liaison program is misguided at best, and smacks of kowtowing to lobby groups bent on serving what they see as a “socially progressive” agenda while seemingly ignoring the idea of consulting with school staff and administration, students, parents, the officers themselves, and others with first-hand experience of the program.

I’ve not heard of a trustee reaching out to school communities for advice on anything, anywhere in Greater Victoria. Ever.

My experiences with police liaison officers. over a span of decades in my teaching career, have left me with appreciation for the vital work they do and an admiration for the professionalism and care they extend towards the children they serve, whether delivering safety messages around Halloween, providing interventions for troubled youths, or simply continuing the work of fostering positive role models in the school community and building bridges between young people and law enforcement.

Presence of these officers in our schools is in part aimed at reaching out to the very children who may feel anxiety in the presence of law enforcement officers.

You will never erase anxiety from schools, or any institution housing a cross-section of humanity. But you can work with children to assuage such tensions.

Who better to inculcate in students more wholesome associations with law enforcement than the police officers themselves? If I have a child coming into my class with a history of anxiety towards learning math, does that mean I should banish arithmetic from my weekly schedule?

Rhetorical question.

David Masini Victoria