School Safety


A report into violence in toronto‘s schools recommends using gun-sniffing dogs to root out one of the problems facing the city’s education system. The School Community Safety Advisory Panel’s 1,000 page report says toronto‘s school system has become a place where violent incidents go unreported, where there is fear among both students and staff. The report says a “culture of fear, or culture of silence, permeates through every level of the TDSB (toronto District School Board).” The advisory panel, headed by lawyer Julian Falconer, was put together by the TDSB following the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners in a hallway of C.W. Jeffreys Collegiate Institute in May 2007. The report will outline large numbers of violent incidents in toronto‘s schools, involving guns and knives, as well as physical and sexual assaults. And according to Falconer, the incidents were not limited to the city’s northwest, where Manners was killed. “In other words, the problem is city-wide,” Falconer said in an interview with CBC News. Although the report makes more than 100 recommendations to improve safety inside the schools, one recommendation in particular has been given special notice: the panel wants the TDSB to buy and use gun-sniffing dogs to examine lockers and “other nooks and crannies” where firearms might be hidden. “It hardly will remove guns from schools, in large numbers,” Falconer said, “but what it ensures is that the board engages in some element of due diligence to protect our youth.” What’s your view? Is the report accurate? Is there a climate of fear in toronto‘s schools?