Dear Trustee,

As a network of educators committed to creating socially just and equitable classrooms, schools, and
communities, both locally and globally, we are writing to recommend the permanent cancellation of
the School Resource Officer program.

Our members work in TDSB secondary schools in every zone, and for the past 10 years we have
seen the program do real damage to Black, Indigenous, other racialized, and undocumented
students.

Some of us have reported these harms and been met with episodic concern, assurances that
incidents were being looked into, and deflection.

Others have not been able to report concerns because, in very real ways, the TDSB culture of fear
continues, making it difficult even for many teachers (especially those without permanent contracts)
to raise concerns about programs openly championed by principals.

Given this, we were grateful you decided to suspend the program while a review is conducted. We
are further grateful that board staff have taken seriously concerns that public consultation sessions
would still not create the space the board needs to hear from our most vulnerable and scared
students.

Our members have attended several of the public sessions and shared many of our stories. We took
succor that many of you take this issue seriously enough to attend yourselves.

For those who werent able to attend a session in person, we feel its important you know that for
every positive story youve heard from a principal or parent, there are at least as many students and
parents who are telling the board that SROs make them less safe in school.

We hope you all hear us, TDSB employees, putting on the record that this program imperils our duty
to ensure a safe and nurturing school environment for all children.

For those who were not able to attend a consultation we want ensure you know that:

Our own colleagues have told us about how sexual harassment from SROs made them
unsafe in their workplace.
We have witnessed multiple assaults by SROs on students, both in hallways and in
classrooms.
We have seen SROs escalate minor behavioral issues into major incidents which we know
led directly to students being either arrested, suspended, or dropping out.
SROs have told us that they are there to gather information on students so they can share
this with their division colleagues.
We have seen SROs arrest a student at school upon the request of a principal in order to
make an example of that student for breaking a school rule. This student stopped attending.
We have seen students leave important school community building events once the SRO
shows up.
We have seen a student deliver a speech in class about police brutality, only to be later
publicly targeted and humiliated by the school SRO who was informed by the classroom
teacher.
 We know undocumented students who literally have to run and hide whenever they see the
SRO because they know that officer has a legal duty to report immigration violations.
We have seen students in our expulsion programs work incredibly hard to return to a
mainstream school, only to drop out a month later after harassment from an SRO.
We have heard too many of our students tell us we already see enough police in our
neighborhood, we dont want them following us to school.

We have followed this issue for a long time and we have heard many of you express concern that we
cant replace SROs until we know what to replace them with.

Those of you who attended the consultations know the board has multiple and much better options.

For those who didnt attend, you missed hearing about the school that hired a well-known community
member as a Safety Monitor and the resulting transformation in school culture and attendance rates
when students knew that the extra caring adult in the building wasnt able to arrest or report them
to immigration.

You missed the parents and teachers calling on the board, 10 years later, to fully adopt the
recommendations of the School Safety Advisory Panel, in particular their suggestion that schools are
made safer by hiring more CYWs, more counsellors, more psychologists, and hall monitors.

We know these things will cost money, and that the SRO program is a band-aid solution that allows
you as a Trustee to say you care about student safety without actually having to do anything.

We want to make clear that the band-aid is infected and puts students at risk.

Now is the time for real solutions, solutions that students, parents, teachers, and experts have been
demanding for years.

The solutions are not easy, but our students are worth more than easy answers.

We know that all Trustees take the boards moral and legal commitment to equity to heart given your
decision to cancel all student trips to the U.S. under the principle that one student harmed is one too
many.

Given this, we know that any objective assessment of the feedback solicited through the SRO review
process confirms that program must be permanently cancelled.

Knowing that this review process has brought to light the dangers police present to students
(whether in the form of an SRO or not) we urge you to perform a similar equity focussed review of
the Police - School Board Protocol to ensure that any and all police presence in schools can be
justified given the demonstrated harms it produces.

We would be more than happy to speak to you and answer any and all questions you might have.
Please contact us at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Educators for Peace and Justice

educatorsforpeaceandjustice@gmail.com