Dear

Toronto Police Services Board and Mayor John Tory,

I am writing as a community youth worker in a school in the Toronto District School Board, asking you to
suspend the Safety Resource Officer program based on my experiences working with Latin American
youth in an Urban Priority Area.

We have an after-school program with 18-20 youth that runs every Monday for the last year. Our goal is
make students academically succeed, having support and motivation workshops lead by college
students.

We had a focus group a couple weeks ago, where the questions were based on what school should
improve for them to feel comfortable. Some answers were incredibly helpful for me to understand
what I can do to make them want to come to school and make the program more engaging but there
was one matter that got my attention the most. Students asked me why the police are coming a lot to
their school and if there is something wrong going on. They told me once there were 7 patrols and two
bikes standing in the front. I asked them why that was an issue and they said that even though they
know there are police officers, they feel intimidated in school and the police officers make school
environment heavy. Also, students mentioned that it confirms the stereotype of the school as one
that has gangs and is a bad school.

In our program, we try to engage Latin American youth given their high drop out rate in schools. I
think having police officers in schools creates another disengagement factor and makes students think
the education system is against them. I encourage you to suspend the SRO program in Toronto.

Angie Barreno Viteri

Community School Liaison