Review of school resource officer program in Regina complete, but school boards won't discuss until fall

School boards in Regina say the review of a program that brings police officers into the city's schools is complete, but that a decision on the School Resource Officer (SRO) program will not come until this fall.

That's when the boards of Regina Public Schools and Regina Catholic Schools will have their first meetings of the school year. 

On Tuesday at Regina Public Schools' June board meeting, trustees heard from people calling for an end to the program.

"It is your professional and legal obligation to ensure the removal of your police in school program," said Andrea Vásquez Jiménez, the director and principal consultant of Policing-Free Schools. 

In 2017, Vásquez Jiménez helped convince the Toronto District School Board to end the presence of armed police in schools. 

She called for Regina Public Schools to make a similar decision when the topic is up for discussion.

Vásquez Jiménez said the board must avoid implementing reforms such as more training or more diversity in school police officers. Instead, she said it should remove police from schools completely. 

"Your school board must understand that the detrimental impact of police and policing in schools are systemic. These are not isolated issues. Your police and school program isn't different. Your educational space isn't different. Your students aren't different," Vásquez Jiménez said. 

What is the SRO program and why is it being reviewed?  

The SRO program is a partnership between the Regina Police Service and the city's public and Catholic school divisions.

It is meant to develop positive relationships between youth and police, reduce crime in school property and provide teachers with a law enforcement resource. It has been running for 43 years and currently features 15 officers stationed across Regina elementary and high schools.

In 2020, some students, parents and community members in Regina called for the program to be cut, saying the presence of police is intimidating, especially for Indigenous, Black and newcomer students. 

The city's school divisions then hired Praxis Consulting to conduct the review, along with open houses and an online survey.

While the review is now complete, it is not publicly available. 

Spokespeople for Regina Public Schools and Regina Catholic Schools confirmed Wednesday they will not be making a decision until the fall. 

"We need time to understand what all the data collected suggests, and after that our board of trustees and administration will share more," said Twylla West, a spokesperson for Regina Catholic Schools.

Issues raised over survey

During Tuesday's board meeting, j wallace skelton (who uses lowercase spelling), an assistant professor in queer studies and education at the University of Regina and a parent of students at a Regina public school, urged caution over the review. 

skelton was an employee with the Toronto District School Board when it held public consultations on its school resource officer program.

The survey conducted by the Toronto school board found that although a majority of students and staff felt positively about the program, those who did not were disproportionately Black students. It is because of that small group's concerns that the SRO program was ended, skelton said.

"In education, the goal shouldn't just be that most students are successful. We want to work toward all students being successful," skelton said.

On Tuesday, skelton raised concerns over the survey conducted on behalf of Regina school boards, which the education professor believed "showed a pro-police bias" that would skew the results of the survey.

"The survey fielded was flawed in its creation and won't provide Regina Public Schools with good data about the people most harmed by the program," said skelton. 

The education professor urged the board to remember the concerns of racialized students and staff when they make their decision on the SRO program.

Regina Police Service chief Evan Bray, who is set to retire at the end of June, has been an outspoken supporter of the SRO program.

In May, he said the review would be a chance to strengthen the program.

"We're really looking at this as an opportunity for us to take that program and enhance it and improve it in a way that people feel comfortable with," said Bray.

In a statement, Regina police directed all questions to the school boards, but added that the service believes strongly in the value the officers bring to the city's schools.

"That being said, we are always looking at ways to improve and evolve the work we do and this review will help us to do just that," the statement read. 

According to the 2022 annual report on the SRO program, its officers offered 207 presentations covering subjects like cyberbullying, interpersonal violence, gangs, drugs and social media education during the 2022/2023 school year.

The officers also took part in 209 lockdown drills this year and conducted 221 mediations at schools over things like school yard bullying, fighting or cyberbullying.