The Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB) is set to consider the School Resource Officer program on Monday.
The program was put on pause following mass calls for police reform across the United States and Canada, including a solidarity march in Kitchener.
"It must be acknowledged we are at a moment of reflection and reckoning in terms of how our diversity of students perceive and interact with our law enforcement officers," read the report. "The WCDSB was aware of the research and the more global concerns that have arisen that point to indications of societal racism."
The report is mostly focused on new data for a third-party consultant which surveyed teachers, students, and other members of the community.
"The purpose of hiring a third-party consultant was to provide WCDSB with a deep dive into both the perceptions and the reality of the lived experience of the SRO program in our schools and to assist us in determining if the program should continue, and if so, what concrete steps could be taken to improve the attainment of the goals of the SRO program."
Themes from respondents included a lack of full knowledge of the existence of the SRO program, its goals, or its impact. The report also found a possible lack of institutional awareness of bias and racial profiling.
"The open-ended responses shed additional light on the mixed perceptions and understandings of the program wherein some students express wonderings why police are needed in their schools and expressed rather than make students feel safer, police in schools do the opposite, making students feel unsafe, uncomfortable."
Students were varied in their experiences with SROs in open-ended questions, and "from a racialized student lens some did share positive experiences and perceptions however fewer positive experiences and reported cases of feeling targeted, intimidated, and unsafe. These views were also shared and supported by perceptions of Indigenous and White students."
Teaching staff were more favourable of the program, with responses "overwhelmingly" supporting officers' positive approach, understanding of school needs, and responding with a restorative lens to discipline issues.
School administration also appreciate having a consistent police officer when dealing with issues that don't warrant a 911 call.
The report makes several recommendations, including refining the goals of the program, clarifying how it differs from a police officer.
It also recommends using student input to redesign the program going forward, especially from minority and racialized youth.
You can read the full report by clicking here, It starts on page 7.
