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Vancouver school board votes to reintroduce police into more than a dozen high schools

ABC Vancouver trustees, backed by Independent Christopher Richardson, make good on Mayor Ken Sim's campaign promise

Former Vancouver Police School Liaison Officer Const. Alan Man competing during the 14th Annual Contributing to Lives of Inner City Kids (CLICK) Tug-of_war tournament to start off Inner City Kids Week at VanTech School in Vancouver, BC, May, 8, 2018.
Former Vancouver Police School Liaison Officer Const. Alan Man competing during the 14th Annual Contributing to Lives of Inner City Kids (CLICK) Tug-of_war tournament to start off Inner City Kids Week at VanTech School in Vancouver, BC, May, 8, 2018. Photo by RICHARD LAM /PNG

The Vancouver school board has moved ahead with plans to reintroduce police into more than a dozen high schools.

On Monday night, five of the board’s nine trustees voted in favour of sending a letter to Vancouver Police Department Chief Adam Palmer asking he come up with a plan to bring police back into schools by Sept. 2023.

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Police were ousted from 17 Vancouver high schools in April 2021 under the watch of former Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart – due to concerns over the impact that police presence in schools had on the mental and physical well-being of students, especially students of colour.

The previous school board voted 8 to one in favour of dismantling the school liaison program.

However, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and his ABC Vancouver team campaigned to bring police back into schools. During the campaign Sim credited school police with protecting him from gangs and racism at his Vancouver high school.

The new VSB has nine trustees of whom four are members of ABC Vancouver. Trustee Christopher Richardson was dropped from the ABC slate late in the campaign over his involvement with several failed charities, but on Monday voted with the ABC slate.

This meant various efforts by the Vancouver Greens’ two trustees (Lois Chan-Pedley and Janet Fraser), COPE trustee Suzie Mah and OneCity trustee Jennifer Reddy to call for more consultation before making a decision were overruled at every turn.

Mah said the topic was highly divisive and more time needed to be spent examining the role of police in schools.

Student trustee Mia Liu – who has no voting power – asked that students be consulted before a decision was made.

The vote came a week after B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner called for the end of school liaison officer programs in the province.

In a letter to the B.C. School Trustees Association, commissioner Kasari Govender recommended that the programs be ended by all school districts unless they can demonstrate an evidence-based need for them that can’t be met some other way.

Govender said Indigenous, Black and other marginalized students, as well as their parents and communities, had raised significant concerns about the harm caused by having police in schools.

In a prepared statement released after the vote, Green trustee Lois Chan-Pedley said the VPD has not addressed the issue of systemic racism within the force.

with file from Canadian Press