Black Students ‘Criminalized’

Dear Editor:

The rate of police interventions in our high schools has risen to an alarming level.

The “zero tolerance” policy of the Toronto Board of Education seems to give principals “carte blanche” to transfer their normal disciplinary duties to the police.

The policy is being abused, and in effect has degenerated into a racist one in which Black students are being targeted by the schools for petty, or at worst, minor offenses. The principal spends little time to investigate but instead simply reaches for the phone and calls the police, thus escalating the matter into a criminal offence.

At one high school in York last week, police entered the classroom on three different occasions and arrested a Black student. There have been many such incidents in our schools in Toronto recently.

Many of the students arrested are refused bail and have to spend time in jail until a court hearing. Even worse, if convicted, a high proportion of Black students risks having a criminal record before they are 21. Many of the charges are specious or outright untruths, such as “assaulting a police officer” or “assaulting the principal”.

I am sure that the purpose of the Board, when the policy of “zero tolerance” was initiated, was to prevent violence in the schools, and not an indiscriminate one that involves two students having a disagreement or a simple scuffle. It seems school principals are simply taking the easy way out and calling the police.

Schools are supposed to be secure places with an atmosphere suitable for study and recreation. The active presence of police in schools, especially when they are called there to incriminate Black students for minor offences is racist and malicious.

Are these schools being run in the long-term interest of the students, or are principals finding it more expedient to ignore the valuable training they received at Teachers’ College and take measures likely to jeopardize the futures of the young men and women entrusted to them on trivial issues?

Save our children. The Board of Education must reconsider its “zero tolerance policy”.

Owusu Younge

Toronto

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