KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
Policing-Free Schools

1: Grounding of Police and Police(ing) in Ontario School Boards and Reducing Harm

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OVERVIEW

This is the 2nd of 5 modules for our short series on Policing-Free Schools, featuring Andrea Vázquez-Jiménez from Policing-Free Schools Canada.

This video serves as a grounding to the issue of police and policing in Ontario schools boards and reducing harm. 

You will learn:

  • What the data says about the impacts of policing in schools

  • What is meant by “police-free” and “policing-free schools”

  • Some local wins for removing police from schools

  • Recent provincial updates involving policy/legislation on policing in schools

Rather than serving as a step-by-step/know your rights guide on interactions with police (like other sections of this toolkit), this content will allow you to better understand the history/current landscape of policing in schools.

Later modules will delve into both individual and collective steps you can take to address issues of police violence in schools.

You can find the transcription for this video here (including visual descriptions for the video).

Refer to our glossary if you’re having trouble understanding any of the terms in this series.

What does the data say about the impacts of policing?

Police presence, policing, and increased police spending do not equate to safety, despite this being a widely normalized assumption. Research, including a 2023 Canadian study examining a decade of data across the country’s 20 largest municipalities, shows no connection between increased police budgets and reductions in crime or improvements in safety.

This holds true within educational spaces as well. There is little to no evidence that police-in-school programs prevent or reduce violence or make schools safer. In contrast, there is extensive evidence demonstrating the harmful impacts of these programs, particularly on Black, Indigenous, racialized, 2SLGBTQQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent students, and those with precarious immigration status.

What does support safe and healthy learning environments are adequate resources and supports, such as:

  • smaller class sizes,

  • increased staffing of teachers, educational assistances, support staff, etc.,

  • mental health services,

  • professional support services

  • wraparound supports,

  • school food programs and clear water,

  • clean air,

  • accessible transportation,

  • before- and after-school programs,

  • addressing broader social and structural determinants of health and equity,

  • and more.

What do we mean when we say police- and policing-free schools?

Aligned with Policing-Free Schools’ US-based national campaign partners—The Advancement Project and The Alliance for Educational Justice’s collective campaign definition of police-free schools—police- and policing-free schools involves “dismantling policing infrastructure, culture and practice, ending school militarization and surveillance, and building a new liberatory education system.”

At the same time, this work is about co-creating new systems—building educational environments that are liberatory, equitable, healing-centered, and rooted in collective care.

What about the local wins for removal of police-in-school programs?

The province currently known as Ontario has the highest number of local wins for the removal of police-in-school programs across so-called Canada. The majority of these victories have been the result of community-led campaigns, many of which have been youth-led.

What’s been going on provincially?

Following the 2017 removal of the police-in-school program from the Toronto District School Board, calls were made for province-wide action to remove police from all schools. However, provincial leadership has consistently framed the issue as a local responsibility, reflecting an ongoing lack of political will to address it as a systemic issue.

Despite this, advocacy efforts have led to incremental progress, including the incorporation of police removal from schools into political party platforms and policy papers, as well as legislative actions such as petitions being tabled. These developments are part of an ongoing, intergenerational struggle, where each win contributes to building momentum for broader systemic change.

Links (listed by order mentioned in video):