“Violence in schools is unacceptable and we must do everything we can to stop it!”

BY PAUL JUNOR

There has been a lot of attention over the past few months on the spate of violence that has occurred in Toronto schools in the Greater Toronto Area. This has prompted calls for responses from John Tory, the Mayor of Toronto and other concerned individuals.

There has been a call for more support staff by the Education Support Union. Laura Walton, President of the Ontario School Board Council of Unions of Public Employees, called on the Ontario government to hire more trained mental health workers and education assistants who will be available on school sites to assist students who are in distress. Principals and superintendents will also go through the training so that they know how to respond to students who are in violent situations on school property.

Laura states, “We need to ensure that there’s more student support services. We need to ensure that there are more mental health services.”

There have been several violent incidents in Toronto schools within the last few months including shootings and stabbings in which at least one student was killed. Many of these young offenders are facing the possibility of jail time for their crimes. On Thursday, January 12^th, 2023, there was a shooting at Toronto East York Alternative Secondary School in which a gun was discharged as a result of a fight in the school’s washroom with one of the school workers being hit by a stray bullet.

Laura expressed great concerns about the possibility that there will be more school violence within the next few months if there is no action done at the present time. She notes, “School boards are not equipped to do what we need to do. It’s going to require a full stakeholder conversation.” She expressed hope that there will be a meeting under the provincial working group on health and safety in which stakeholders such as: the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Education, school boards, teacher’s unions, and other education support unions.

Laura states further, “There is a multi-stakeholder group that has been in existence for almost 10 years that is sitting dormant right now, because the ministry doesn’t want to meet with bargaining going on. That group needs to be empowered to address these issues.”

Data obtained from the Toronto Police Services was presented at the TDSB’s planning and priorities committee meeting. It indicated that there were 622 youth between the ages of 12 and 29 who were victims of stabbings and 586 were implicated in stabbings between January 2021 and November 2022.The TDSB revealed that it is in the process of establishing a student engagement and safety team at each school, as well as an audit team that will collaborate with schools to enforce safety policies and procedures.

Mayor John Tory mentioned that there would be an emphasis on expanded youth programming and mental-health initiatives to provide students with additional support. This decision was made after he consulted with: TDSB’s representatives, police and city staff to address the rising youth violence. Mayor Tory states, “We all agree that violence in schools is unacceptable and we must do everything we can to stop it.”

The increase in youth violence is not restricted to the GTA. There have been incidents in London, Ontario in which there was a stabbing of a girl at a high school, which led to one girl being arrested and another one ended up with real injuries. In addition, in December 2022 there was a stabbing at a high school in Oakville, which resulted in three teenage girls being charged with assault and another one running from the police.