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Police, staff key to Toronto school safety plan

BRODIE FENLON

Globe and Mail Update

Latest comment posted at 3:01 PM EDT 20/05/08

Action plan released Tuesday is a formal response to damning Falconer report on safety in Canada's largest school system ...Read the full article

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  1. J S from Toronto, Canada writes: I think including PARENTS in the equation would have been smart.
  2. Gardiner Westbound from Canada writes:
    Or, we could lock up the bad guys.
  3. Scott Templeton from Whitby, Canada writes: There are 3 problems with this report....

    1) It still doesn't take into account respect and by respect I mean if a student doesn't have respect for oneself then the student will have respect for no one. Respect begins at home parents should take responsibility for their children's upbringing. Stop blaming the world for all that is wrong!

    2) Gun's and the young offenders act...make it tougher on Criminals...and make a parent truly responsible for their child's behaviour well they are living at home.

    3) The comment above about including Parents in the equation.....I am involved in my child's education and have been for sometime now, but I think its time for Parents and politicians to hand the teaching and control back over to the teachers and administration of our schools. After all who see's more in the school then a teacher?

    Don’t get me wrong parents getting involved in their child’s education is a good thing….but Parents are also the reason discipline has left the school system and mainline society do to taking away powers in the education system that use to be!!!!!!!!!
  4. Brad Fgroupthinkn from Canada writes: Why not correctional officers? Their experience may be more appropriate in our Post 911 police state.
    Schools have lock downs just like prisons, there are too many similarities between the two.
    There is little doubt we will "militarize" the facilities and school will be safer.
    Next? Police in every office/workplace.
    Logical extension
  5. Roop Misir from Toronto, Canada writes:
    In the short term, this move may work.

    In the long term though, we must look at underlying causes. Can these be the demise of the traditional family unit, and decadent moral values in our society at large?

    Will more cops instill more fear and precipitate more resentment?
  6. James Meatball from Toronto, Canada writes: What is the point of the "anti-racism and equity" recommendations? Are they suggesting that the problem in certain Toronto schools has some connection with the race issue? Really? In our politically correct society is it OK to say this? Dare we call a spade a spade?
  7. J.C. Davies from Canada writes:
    "bring more Toronto Police Service officers into schools to strengthen safe-schools related programs, such as student leadership programs, traffic safety, street proofing and Internet safety"

    Apparently the fight against gangs infiltrating schools will be led by Elmer the Safety Elephant.
  8. Jan Burton from Toronto, Canada writes: The problem in Toronto is as known to everyone who pays attention to violence in schools.

    Young black men, primarily in the Jamaican community, are growing up with no fathers, no role models and with single moms who usually do a crappy job of parenting. It's not uncommon to find women with three kids from three different guys by the time she's 25.

    These kids latch on to the gangsta image of what it means to "be black" - the mentality that idolizes thugs, treats women with disdain and rejects education.

    Unfortunately the community refuses to take responsibility for itself, preferring instead to blame racism, police, the schools, government - anyone except the parents.

    Sadly, the guilt-stricken far lefties on school boards tend to allow them to get away with it - hence no mention of the obvious problem in this latest report.
  9. Jan Burton from Toronto, Canada writes: James Meatball from Toronto, Canada writes: "What is the point of the "anti-racism and equity" recommendations? Are they suggesting that the problem in certain Toronto schools has some connection with the race issue?"

    ===========

    Funny how that works, isn't it?

    It's sort of like the hilarious Faulkner report where the authors basically said: "This problem has NOTHING to do with black youth!" while at the same time focusing their investigation on schools in black neighbourhoods and then topping it off by recommending black focused-schools.
  10. Robert Loblaw from Canada, Canada writes: Jan Burton - Sadly, your assessment is correct.

    Ask the cops - they'll tell you where the problem is.

    A recent incident in a suburban Toronto community (mixed - largely white, many Asians) gives some perspective.

    A boy walking home from high school was stopped by a car of six high school aged male blacks. They were looking for someone who lived on one of the local streets. The incident was so out of character for the neighborhood that upon arriving home, the boy called the police. Four cars arrived in minutes. The boys in the car were apprehended and were carrying knives, pipes and baseball bats.

    Clearly there was some level of imminent danger and the police understood the problem. Is this racial profiling or is it a simple recognition by law enforcement people that certain communities have a pattern of behaviour that tends to reflect ongoing lawlessness.

    Until the community recognizes that it must take responsibility, no amount of money spent on social engineering will have any positive result.

    Unfortunately, the concept of the village raising the children doesn't work in this environment. Parenting is the issue, and two parent households stand a much better chance of accomplishing this objective.
  11. The Bubble from Canada writes: They go around and around with this problem. There are solutions but everyone is ascared to make the decisions. I was in a class with the 'baddest' students from around several schools. They were just a bunch of young teenage boys looking for a good time so I showed them one. Two years, never had a problem and they listened to me and got quite a few credits. The problem is not the students, it's an imbalance of 80 percent female teachers, they simply can't identify or handle these types of males. Drop the Catholic board to save a boatload of money and streamline all the schools. Make the directors and maybe even principals run in a municipal elections for their jobs to keep these guys honest because they have been political appointments. Dalton McGuinty has a mandate from a large part of the electorate here to do this but more cops, training et al is part of the old method of putting in time until the issue is out of the public eye. Sooner or later something really bad is going to happen.
    They also need to restructure the tech classes which have become holding tanks for students not taking academic. Until there are more men on the job, some logic to how management gets their jobs and focusing on rounding out the curriculum especially in tech, the male students will still be alienated from education, it's not just black students. Ladies, you can let us know how aggressive we are, but you can't take it out of us, all males have testosterone and it makes us agressive, youths don't know how to handle it and need to be taught, not have it taken away through behavior modification. It's all such a waste of time. I always wondered why no educational 'professional' ever came to observe my class, it was a cornucopia of psychosis. A degree has nothing on several years experience. Problem is the people who are bringing in these new programs have pieces of paper saying they are the only ones who know best. If there ever was an ivory tower it's the board offices.
  12. Sydney R from Canada writes: Jan Burton--excellent comments. I feel that the problems created by neglect of parenting among some segments are being passed onto police and teachers. Also Toronto residents generally are being unfairly regarded as racist , as if they created the problem in the first place.
  13. David Gibson from Canada writes: """Problem is the people who are bringing in these new programs have pieces of paper saying they are the only ones who know best.""" Or more briefly: The lunatics are in charge of the asylum. It's too bad this discussion can't be held publicly, televised, 2 hours a night for a month. Let the fat, pensioned, last generation of politicians and journalist/activists explain how this will turn into Nirvana if we throw enough money at it. What a mess. I wish Toronto would secede.

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