Edmonton public schools will gather more feedback before deciding fate of school-based officers

The Edmonton public school board needs to consider feedback from staff and more students before deciding the future of police officers stationed in schools, a new report says.

Describing a newly released study as "one piece of information," board chair Trisha Estabrooks says more work will begin in the fall to gather that information before trustees decide the fate of the school resource officer program.

Nearly three years after the division paused the program, the $150,000 academic study commissioned by the board says there isn't sufficient data to say whether removing officers from junior and senior high schools led to any change in how many students faced charges or were ticketed for infractions.

The report, based on focus groups with current and former students and parents, a survey of high school students, and previous academic work on police in schools, says a "small yet vocal group" of students and parents may support the permanent removal of police.

"It can be argued that if even a few students and parents are uncomfortable with the presence of police in school, the SRO program should be cancelled," the report says. 

Professors Sandra Bucerius, Kanika Samuels and Scot Wortley spoke with 62 current and former students and 38 parents of current and past students.

They also surveyed high school students in May and June of 2022, but only considered 4,042 responses from students who identified as Indigenous, racialized, living with a disability or as 2SLGBTQ or non-binary.

This was in response to the school board's 2020 request for a review that focused on the experiences of students from marginalized communities who interacted with school resource officers (SROs).

The results show inconsistent experiences.

Although some students credited officers for listening without judgment, helping them graduate, and diverting them away from facing criminal charges, students who are Indigenous, Black, disabled or non-binary were more likely to report a negative experience with an SRO.

The researchers recommend the school division collect data on any discipline that involves the police, as well as race-based data and information about marginalized groups. 

The board has just begun collecting a broader set of demographic student information this year.

Although many people had positive impressions of the SRO program, the researchers also recommended improvements, including clearer communication about their purposes in schools. Parents wanted SROs better trained to combat bias and mental health problems. Or, to pair police with social workers.

Edmonton Catholic Schools commissioned a similar report from the same three criminologists, who concluded last year that division's SRO program could also improve.

Edmonton Catholic has kept its SROs and today has 13 officers working in 17 junior and senior high schools, according to spokesperson Christine Meadows.

School board taking time to decide program's future

Estabrooks said at a news conference Wednesday the public board isn't yet ready to make a decision. Division staff will spend the summer deciding how to elicit feedback from students who were not captured in the academic study, along with staff, principals and teachers.

It's work that presents an increasing logistical challenge as most students who would have attended a school with an SRO have now graduated. It prompted the researchers to turn to social media campaigns last year to find grads to interview.

Estabrooks defended the lengthy timeline for the work.

"On a conversation this critical and this important, we're committed to taking the time that we need to make the best decision for those that we serve," she said.

Enyinnah Okere, chief operations officer for the Edmonton Police Service's community safety and wellbeing bureau, said the report shows a "positive response" to the SRO program.

"The research is clear: among racialized students and students from other marginalized groups, including students who self-identify as disabled or a member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, SROs are appreciated and a preferred partner for many students and their families," he said in a statement Wednesday.

University of Alberta education associate professor Alex Da Costa sees the results differently.

Last year, he co-authored a report using a decade's worth of Edmonton school data suggesting police in schools are shepherding students toward involvement with the criminal justice system.

Da Costa says there are ways of improving school safety that don't involve the police.

Schools would benefit more from social workers, nurses, meal programs, better child care and smaller class sizes, he says. Health-care and social workers could also deliver education programs on cybercrime or drugs — lessons that the surveyed parents said they valued.

"Policing is not even a Band-aid on what is a much larger problem," he said.

And while the Edmonton public study cites a lack of research on the effects of police in Canadian schools, it omits references to work done by community groups to document the experiences of people who say they were intimidated and targeted by school police, Da Costa said.

Asking police to also be counsellors and mentors when they are trained to enforce the law is also "role conflict" that puts them in an uncomfortable position, Da Costa said.

"How much trust can you establish with someone who can arrest you?" He said. "Who can beat you? Who can jail you?"