sa¹ú¼Ê´«Ã½

Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Les Leyne: Victoria board won’t back down on keeping police out of schools

The Greater Victoria School Board has posted three more versions of its safety plan and warned it’s ready to go to court over the issue.
web1_a01-01072025-vtc-news-leyne-school-safety-plan
The Greater Victoria School Board office on Boleskine Road. TIMES COLONIST

After an earlier safety plan was rejected by the education minister, the Greater Victoria School Board posted three more versions on Monday and warned it is ready to go to court over the issue of school police liaison officers.

Facing termination if they don’t comply with Education Minister Lisa Beare’s orders, the board released a 3,000-word memo accompanying a motion that tries to deflect the issue back to the minister.

It defies her on specific counts, rejects her general authority, hints at a split between the board and its senior staff, and discloses that the special adviser appointed by Beare has given up trying to work with the board.

The three versions of a safety plan were produced rapid fire over three days last week.

Board chair Nicole Duncan on Dec. 24 asked for two versions, one that included school police liaison officers and one that did not. The memo said she got “no substantive response” from staff or from special adviser Kevin Godden.

A single draft was produced Jan. 2, but the board found it “problematic.” Among other things, the memo said it “abrogated the board’s statutory duty to have ultimate oversight of all educational programs.”

The board has repeatedly complained that it doesn’t have authority over SPLOs, citing that as one of the reasons why it cancelled the program in 2023.

It asked the next day for another version that would limit police involvement in schools and require board approval for any police presence.

Hours later, Godden notified the board he could no longer do his job “with the integrity it was intended” and was no longer willing to advise the board.

Staff then forwarded another safety-plan version. The board amended that into a third version, all of which were posted Monday.

The references to rejecting staff reports echo the revelation from former deputy superintendent Harold Caldwell in November that he took early retirement over how toxic the work environment got over the school police liaison issue.

The memo culminates in a resolution that the board “disagrees that the minister has the jurisdiction” to dictate a safety plan.

“While reserving its rights to seek a judicial determination … the board is choosing to comply … in order to avoid being dismissed and replaced by a trustee.”

So the three different approaches to the SPLO issue are all being filed to the Education Ministry, for Beare’s consideration.

In another hint of legal action, the resolution notes: “The board reserves its rights to take any further steps it considers necessary or advisable in relation to the matters noted.”

The board says there is already a police presence in schools and “it is difficult to understand the minister’s objection [to the first safety plan] as anything other than a desire to see … the kind of unfettered, unsupervised, unaccountable access police previously enjoyed in schools.”

All the versions of the safety plan have a section on “relational work” related to various Indigenous authorities, mandating regular meetings and consultation.

But the chiefs of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations blasted the board last month for cancelling school police liaison officers and ignoring their subsequent concerns.

The board ended a highly regarded Indigenous RCMP officer’s daily involvement in schools, which caused immediate and tangible harm, they said.

“The board has failed repeatedly to listen from a place of humility, openness and mutual respect,” the chiefs said.

The board responded to the chiefs’ condemnation by saying it was a communication problem they would try to rectify.

They blamed part of the falldown on the tight deadline imposed by the Education Ministry.

It’s been 18 months since the board suspended SPLO programs, concluding “undeniably, there are some students and staff who do not feel safe with police in schools.”

The Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association has backed them throughout the ensuing controversy, but mounting objections to the board’s stance from the community forced the provincial government into the argument.

Monday was the date set to resolve all this.

All told, the school board responded to the deadline with four reports totalling 19,000 words that deflect, evade and attempt to throw the argument back onto Beare.

Board chair Nicole Duncan shotgunned out a wordy, evasive blizzard of options, complaints and jargon to the public to buy some time while the board prepares to go to court to save their own jobs.

Godden was retained on a $55,000 maximum contract to sort out the argument, with the district ordered to pick up the tab.

Any court actions the board has in mind would dwarf that bill.

Beare is studying her next move. The incomprehensible stew served up by the board Monday makes it clear there’s only one move left: termination.

If obstinate trustees want to sue for their right to pursue this policy of blocking local police officers from building relationships and being available to students who might need help, they should do so as private citizens, not on our dime.

[email protected]

>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]