Schools offer many opportunities to interact with adults

A commentary by a retired principal in Victoria.

The April 13 commentary “Police should not be only adults welcomed in schools,” offers an interesting assessment regarding how school districts should involve adults in our schools.

I agree with much of what was written. But I felt that the writer, a former education minister in Alberta, might leave a feeling that our schools might be so focused on police liaison officers’ presence in the schools, while paying little heed to other community resources.

He states: “It is regrettable that the school opens itself first to the police, rather than to librarians, or public health nurses, or other agents of the community.”

School liaison officers were not present in schools every day, nor all day on most occasions. Frequently, they came with a specific event/program that supported the school community — such as sports events, assemblies, in-class programs (promoting self-awareness, safety, etc.).

But that certainly did not mean other community resource individuals were not welcome, nor invited to be present in the schools.

Many parents spend many hours volunteering, helping with various needs the school has while school is in session. Teachers invite various community resource people into their classes to support and help expand (in a practical way) the curriculum covered in one or more subject areas.

Primary classes, in particular, include community helpers as part of the primary curriculum. It is part of a spiral effect with the topics becoming more sophisticated as students move through the grade levels.

But at every level, teachers frequently take advantage of those in our community who are qualified and eager to share their expertise with students. Therefore, students do have many opportunities to interact with adults from the community along with the liaison officers.

He also states, regarding police liaison officers, that “there are students who have been traumatized by an experience with police, or whose family or close friends have experienced such trauma.”

That may be the case, but it will be the minority, and this is precisely, in my mind, why police liaison officers should be in the school.

How else will “traumatized” students ever see police in a different light? There are students who have feared the presence of police liaison officers until they get to see how they interact positively with the student population and with them personally.

The commentary states what police liaison officers need to be doing in the schools, including teaching, discussing policing in a democracy and the idea of the police officer as an agent of the civilian population.

And, in Victoria, that is what they have done and what they would continue to do if welcomed back into the schools.

So if police liaison officers return to the schools, they will join other resource individuals, all of whom are contributing to make good citizens of our students while providing great role models for our younger generation.