Michael Zwaagstra: The BC Government Should Take a Firm Stand on Student Safety

Commentary

Many parents and teachers are worried about violence in British Columbia schools. Unfortunately, the province does not keep a public registry of violent incidents in schools, so it’s impossible to know exactly how many violent incidents take place each year.

However, not only is there increasing anecdotal evidence of violence in schools, but gangs are targeting schools for recruitment. Several years ago, administrators in the Greater Victoria School District (GVSD) even sent a letter to parents warning that gangs were actively recruiting high school students in their area.

When violent incidents go unchecked and gangs gain a foothold, academic learning grinds to a halt. No student should be expected to learn, and no teacher should be expected to work, in an unsafe school.

This is why many schools have police officers (also known as school resource officers) in their buildings. Not only can police officers stop violent incidents immediately, students can develop positive and meaningful relationships with police, which can affect the rest of their lives.

Unfortunately, a vocal minority of people oppose police officers in schools. They argue that police officers make some students, particularly from visible minority groups, feel unsafe. Consequently, several years ago, the GVSD trustees caved to these demands and voted to cancel their school resource officer program. The GVSD even removed an Indigenous Police Liaison Officer who had spent 10 years building positive relationships with students and staff. Of course, no one can seriously argue that removing this particular officer from schools improved student safety.

At the time, many parents were quite upset. Victoria police, three local municipalities, and the Esquimalt and Songhees First Nations urged trustees to reconsider their decision, but unfortunately their requests fell on deaf ears. The trustees even refused to listen to Minister of Education Lisa Beare’s order to put a stronger safety plan in place. As a result, Beare fired the trustees in January 2025 and appointed an independent administrator to oversee the district. That should have resolved the issue, but it didn’t.

The trustees took the province to court, arguing that their terminations were not only unjust but illegal. Among other things, they provided text messages allegedly showing that provincial education officials spoke about the trustees in disparaging ways.

Shockingly, after these text messages were brought to light, last week Beare capitulated and rescinded her order removing trustees from their positions. Now the trustees are free to resume their previous roles and keep police out of their schools. Unfortunately, rather than standing up for student safety and continuing the legal dispute in court, Beare gave in to a vocal minority.

This is unacceptable. The provincial government is obligated to ensure that all students can learn in a safe and secure school environment. Taking police officers out of schools makes schools less safe. It’s unfortunate that the minister of education isn’t willing to stand up for the interests of students.

This episode also highlights the importance of school choice. B.C. is one of five provinces that allows at least partial government funding to follow students to the schools of their parents’ choice. This makes it easier for parents to enrol their children in independent schools if the government’s public schools are not meeting the educational needs of their children.

It would, of course, be incredibly short-sighted if the provincial government acceded to demands from some lobby groups to cancel all independent school funding. This would trap some students, particularly from low- and middle-income households, in schools that are not meeting their needs. And since police officers are no longer allowed in GVSD schools, we can expect safety issues to become even worse.

The B.C. government should take a firm stand on student safety. This means standing by the decision to fire trustees who refuse to put student safety first. Trustees should not be allowed to cancel school resource officer programs when the evidence shows that students are safer when police are in schools.

If the education minister won’t take a stronger stand on this issue, she must at least make it easier for parents to enrol their children in schools that will guarantee their children will be educated in a safe environment.

Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.