Just yesterday, the Vancouver School Board made the decision to discontinue the School Liaison Officer program by the end of the school year. This topic has been talked about for quite some time starting a year ago, but the final vote is now in place. Changes have been set in stone, ranging from implementing better communication between schools and officers, hiring counsellors to better support mental health among students, training officers to better handle BIPOC and trauma-afflicted students, and bringing officers in to have information sessions. With over 30 speakers consisting of students, parents, officers and the school board sharing their thoughts on the topic, the consensus around the impact that the SLO program has is mixed on being both somewhat positive for a majority, but heavily negative for black and indigenous groups. Especially with the BLM movements in response to deaths in the US, and previous incidents at local schools, a majority of BIPOC students feel that the presence of officers in schools is unnecessary and even scary.

At Lord Byng Secondary, a young black girl was traumatized and neglected by both the school board, and the officers her family tried to report the incident to. The incident in question, a public video posted by a young boy detailing how he wanted to kill black people was a disgusting video that should never have been made public, or even said off-camera. This video, after being seen by many of the students at this school, was reported to the principal. However, their reaction was less than helpful, the principal at the time, Mike Vulgaris, took minimal action against the video. They put out letters to parents mentioning the incident with few details to preserve “student privacy”, and that was it. The school claimed to understand the need for schools to feel “safe and welcoming and caring”, but their inaction stated otherwise, as this young girl’s family had to go to the police instead. And that too, yielded no results, as they told her there is nothing they can do. For months, this young black girl had to avoid school due to bullying and further racism, and even had to transfer out of Lord Byng, abandoning her arts program. While teachers and staff at Lord Byng and the police both failed to provide any sense of safety and justice to this girl’s family, the current vote aims to change that, at least through the removal of the SLO program and implementing changes to better handle such incidents.

The School Liaison Officer program first was implemented in 1972, with an officer in each of the 17 secondary schools in the district. In the beginning it aimed to do many things for students, one of these goals being counselling, but how could officers who are untrained to properly deal with mental health and BIPOC communities possibly assist in an effective way? And based on student reports, a majority of indigenous and black students feel unsafe with an officer on school grounds. And this is only fair, considering that they are often targeted groups by police, and families that are immigrating may be scared of revealing information to the police. Families and students that may be scared of police and immigration officers knowing who they are feel unsafe contacting SLOs, and there have even been cases in which they have been detained for being immigrants on school grounds, or having officers show up at their home. For families like these, school is a risk, and a possibly traumatizing and terrifying experience each day they attend classes. The fear of communicating with others, stops potential relationships students could build, talking about their family or where they’re from, or most importantly, asking for help from an officer that could potentially take their family away, is a fear that shouldn’t need to be existent. These fears regarding family information needing to be kept secret just for attending school contradicts what the VSB aims to do for its students. This keeps many families from even registering for school, or if they do, it is nowhere near a purely positive learning experience for them. And by removing SLOs, the board aims to aid students who may be plagued by this fear.

Fiona Wilson, a representative for the VPD, talked about the consequences of removing SLOs from schools during an online meeting that happened April 12th, mentioning that the majority of those in a survey wanted to keep the SLO program. While the numbers don’t lie, they also do not represent the target group that the SLO program is not providing for. 57% were people of color, and only 4% identified as black or indigenous. Yes, not everyone genuinely wants to terminate the SLO program, but the reason it is being terminated is not for those who feel safe. It is to provide safety for those who do NOT feel safe, such as that 4%. There are positives to having the SLO program for quite possibly a large amount of students, but the negatives and history behind how police are perceived by BIPOC communities, and the numerous cases that have been responded to inadequately or neglected can outweigh those positives.

On April 8th, students gathered outside the VSB office in order to re-iterate just how much officers have an impact on students in schools. And primarily, for black and indigenous students, they feel fear or discomfort with officers on school grounds. To have to go to these lengths in order to send a message on how students feel, schools are finally getting the message on how uniformed officers presence impacts students. When I was at Lord Byng, our officer was rarely to be seen, but I know for a fact that I worried each time I did see them as a black student.

Of course, not every officer is going to handle situations the same way, and there are many officers that have helped a lot around school communities, such as assisting with food drives, and even celebrating Christmas with the pan pacific Christmas wish event. But the VSB is moving to remove SLOs in order to reform how schools interact with officers, providing new plans to allow officers to provide more support and resources to students instead of stress from uniform presence, and truly push towards a real feeling of safety and inclusion for students. The current effect from SLOs being in schools is a “step backwards” says Alejandra Lopez Bravo at the online meeting, and until every student can feel safe in schools, hopefully the VSB will continue pushing for changes to support them.