Toronto Mayor John Tory meets with TDSB and Police to address school violence

BY PAUL JUNOR

The recent spate of violence in Toronto’s schools has prompted Toronto Mayor John Tory to meet with TDSB officials and Toronto Police to address this issue.

Mayor Tory met with representatives of the TDSB to examine the disturbing incidents of school violence and what to do to help those communities. Present at the meeting were: Rachel Chernos Lin, Chair of the TDSB, Neethan Shan, vice-Chair of the TDSB, Colleen Russell-Rawlins, Director of Education, Chris Moise, City Councillor, Senior City of Toronto officials and representatives of the Toronto Police Services.

Mayor Tory tweeted @TorontosMayor, “We all agree that violence in schools is unacceptable, and we must do everything we can to stop it. Beyond the direct impact on victims and their families, these incidents create tensions and insecurities among students, teachers, and parents which simply shouldn’t be prevalent in our schools or in our communities.”

The incidents of school violence that Mayor Tory referred to include the following. At the beginning of November, there was a stabbing in the vicinity of Woburn Collegiate Institute located in the east end of Toronto. Subsequently, there was a stabbing on November 14^th at Birchmount Park Collegiate during which serious injuries were inflicted on a 17-year-old student.

It was this latest incident that prompted Mayor Tory to call for the meeting. He states after the meeting, “Today, we are committed to increased cooperation between the city and the TDSB when it comes to addressing violence. Specifically, the city will work with the school board to prioritize schools that require enhanced youth programming, mental health and well-being supports as well as food security initiatives in schools. We also committed to increased cooperation in responding to violent incidents, increased access and partnerships with local community-based organizations and the city, and to increased information sharing.”

Mayor Tory acknowledges that there will be additional funding needed to ensure that these initiatives are financially undergirded. He notes further, “We will also work together to secure ad deploy on a targeted basis funding from the other government, which is crucial, in addition to coordination of other supports such as student summer jobs.”

In response to the Mayor’s request, the TDSB indicated that it will engage in extra steps to increase safety at schools such as ensuring that there is greater student engagement as well as placing a safety team at each secondary school and an audit team to monitor the implementation of safety policies and procedures.

The TDSB states, “While the TDSB plays an important role in our communities, we cannot do this alone. We look forward to increased cooperation between the school board, and the City of Toronto as we believe it is critical that other levels of government and community partners work collaboratively with us to address this growing concern.”

Stephen Mensah (the Executive Director of the Toronto Youth Cabinet), who speaks on behalf of Toronto’s youth, expressed concerns about structural and systemic barriers which create ongoing obstacles to youths obtaining racial, economic, and social justice. He states, “All these inequities that were previously there have just been exacerbated by the pandemic.”

Stephen is concerned about youth who are pushed into criminal activities due to economic hurdles. He states further, “When we talk about carjackings, when we talk about pharmacy robberies and so on forth, all this happened due to the fact that young people need money for themselves, and they need money to support their parents.”