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news

School Cops Will Not Be Casual, Public Babies Will Not Be Hungry, Darcy Tucker Will Not Be Leaf

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Toronto police chief Bill Blair yesterday said that the police assigned to Toronto schools would be uniformed and armed, contradicting earlier comments by school board chair John Campbell. The officers will remain on campus only until Robocop testing is completed.
Toronto is also getting $5 million from the province for 26 new police officers to patrol high-crime areas that are not high schools, specifically the Jane and Finch and Regent Park neighbourhoods.
The city is launching a program to encourage public breast-feeding, providing free explanatory pamphlets and “breastfeeding friendly” stickers to restaurants. At present the program extends only to the feeding of babies.
City Council has given final approval for a taxi fare increase which will raise the cost of a 5 km trip from $10 to $11.75. Tough call—cab ride, or 50 minute walk and 1 1/2 more drinks?
Hey Industrial League hockey duffers, lace up your skates because there’s never been a better chance to be a Toronto Maple Leaf. GM Cliff Fletcher is cleaning house and has already announced that they’ll buy out Darcy Tucker and put Kyle Wellwood and Andrew Raycroft on waivers.
Photo by Louis Tam from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Comments

  • Green Sulfur

    I’m starting the over-under on the first shooting of a student by a cop in a school at September 2009. You have to figure that in their first year the cops will be on a real tight leish and then, like Tasers, the guns will start coming out with more frequency until one meat head pulls the trigger in a school hallway after a child makes a poping sound with an over-infalted juice box.

  • xtremesniper

    I don’t see what all the fuss is about. First of all, has anyone bothered to look up other school board policies in the GTA?
    I went to a Catholic high school in York Region, and for the last two years of my time there we had two armed and uniformed police officers in and around the school almost all the time. Not because we had any sort of crime rate, but just because they wanted to build that relationship that they’re talking about now in Toronto.
    Maybe if people in Toronto weren’t so narrow minded, they’d see that examples of this kind of police presence already exists in the GTA.

  • dowlingm

    Sad to see the only Leaf willing to shed blood for the team on a regular basis go…

  • bigdaddyhame

    oh oh oh can we have a competition to design the breastfeeding logo?

  • x_the_x

    I am thankful for the breastfeeding program, as it provides irrefutable proof that the City is a bloated, wasteful shambles of a government that has lost all sight of the proper confines of its agenda, and thus, its legitimacy.

  • lunarworks

    When I was in high school, in Halton Region during the ’90s, we had a fully-armed and uniformed police officer come into the school once or twice a week.
    Our school was one of the least violent schools I’ve ever heard of, but this was still part of the programme. His main duty there was to be a community liason, of sorts. He’d walk around, chatting with the teens, seeing what’s up. He’d make himself familiar, and try to build up trust. I remember one time I approached him and asked him about his baton. He demonstrated a somewhat painful restrain technique on me in front of everyone in the cafeteria, but it was all good-natured.

  • Chris Taylor

    In the late 80s when I went to school in York Region, the only time we say the cops was at school dances and big-crowd events. It was a pretty rare event.
    But when I transferred to a Toronto high school shortly afterward, I found that the police were a routine, daily presence in the hallways. Not particularly scary, they were friendly guys.
    Now that the force has at least 20+ years experience in this particular role, I imagine they are not going to suddenly get caught unawares by kids goofing off in the hallways.
    And as an aside, high school would probably have been even more entertaining if Robocop was around.

  • Mark Ostler

    Tucker hasn’t been much of an offensive force in the few years. Just a watered down enforcer. The only one I’m sad to see go is Wellwood, though he has been injured so much that he hasn’t had a chance to really make a difference. A shame because he still a young-un with many years left (if his hernia quits acting up).

  • PickleToes

    I’m willing to bet that these cops will make better role models than an apologetic social worker. Only in socialist Toronto would enough people be against this common sense plan as to make it newsworthy.
    I went to high school in Simcoe County, Innisfil to be exact. It was a school full of rednecks and renowned for its rambunctious and rowdy students. There were large brawls mostly every day coupled with copious amounts of drug use. Somebody even went as far as to light the floor of the gym on fire!
    In Grade 11 the police stepped up their presence in the school. We had a constable randomly patrol the hallways during the lunch and the occasional lock down to search for contraband. Naturally, our privacy was slightly curtailed, but anecdotally speaking the school improved.
    There are lots of kids in high school who don’t want to be there. They’re probably only there because their parents make them or because they’re not old enough to drop out yet. As such, they don’t care about any of the academic consequences the school can throw at them. Having even an occasional police presence can remind potential trouble makers that there are more serious outcomes awaiting them than suspension or expulsion.