Bill 33, the so-called Supporting Children and Students Act, passed a final vote in the Ontario legislature on November 19. The Bill gives the Ontario government more control over school boards. It grants Education Minister Paul Calandra the power to override school board decisions, remove trustees and establish policies and guidelines. The province is currently controlling five school boards, under the guise of fighting financial mismanagement, while paying Provincial Supervisors $350,000.
The NDP and teachers’ unions such as the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) have been clear that rather than undermining the voices of trustees, the province should look at increasing funding for schools. Ontario’s schools face large class sizes as well as cuts to special education and mental health services. Instead of listening to these concerns, the province moved to fast-track Bill 33 by limiting debate and skipping the committee hearing stage.
Rather than addressing any of these issues in a meaningful way, Doug Ford made school violence his pet issue and stepped up to “address” it in true culture warrior fashion: by using Bill 33 to mandate the inclusion of Police in Ontario schools. The Bill requires school boards to implement School Resource Officer (SRO) programs where offered by local police services, starting next school year.
Enter Peel School Board Trustee, LeAnn Cole. Eager to join the culture war, she put forward a motion in October that would expedite the return of police officers to Peel Schools. The motion couldn’t be heard in October because it hadn’t been through the proper vetting, but this gave time for teachers and community members in Peel to act.
Working with the Policing Free Schools coalition, the Peel Elementary Teachers’ Local (PETL) checked with all the school board trustees to get written statements of their positions on the motion. They held press conferences where they showed pictures of the trustees voting yes, trustees voting no and the trustees whose positions were still unknown. Backed at the provincial level by ETFO, Peel and other locals around the province held walk-ins to get teachers and communities talking about Bill 33 and its potential impacts. Phone and email blasts were organized to call trustees and let them know how Peel teachers felt about the potential return of police to schools.
On November 26, the day of the Peel School Board Meeting, rank-and-file and executive members of PETL filled the gallery with community members and heard from student trustees who spoke passionately against the motion. The result was a win. Cole’s motion was defeated 7-4. As Policing Free Schools posted on their Instagram page:
“This win was a result of an intensive rapid response local campaign in Peel Region with only a little over a month to secure the votes and organize, led by Policing-Free Schools alongside our local Peel-based partners Peel Black Collective & BEF Empowers and full support of our co-organizing partner Peel Elementary Teachers’ Local!”
This victory is a good sign to locals around the province that just because Bill 33 has passed, the fight for an alternative, fully-funded, evidence-based and trauma-informed education system in the province is still going.
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