Manitoba just got a wake-up call on school safety

Manitoba school attacks underscore why students need police in their schools

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All Manitoba parents were rightly horrified when a registered sex offender recently sneaked into a Winnipeg elementary school and tried to assault a child in a washroom.

Fortunately, the child was able to escape, and the offender was arrested shortly afterward. But this incident has ignited a new debate about school safety in Manitoba, and hopefully across the country.

Every political party in the province agrees that more needs to be done. The Manitoba government announced it would invest $500,000 in additional school security measures. Premier Wab Kinew also expressed his personal support for putting more police officers, also known as school resource officers, in schools.

Sadly, this incident came only a few short months after a violent sword attack in a Brandon high school where a teenage boy was stabbed multiple times. Thanks to the immediate intervention of a school resource (police) officer, the offender was quickly subdued. The boy sustained serious injuries, but he was not killed.

These violent attacks remind us that criminals have entered our schools and threatened students. That is why it makes sense for school divisions to partner with police forces and place resource officers in most Manitoba schools.

A few short years ago, many school divisions across the country were jumping on the “defund the police” bandwagon. Anti-police groups argued that having police officers in schools made students feel unsafe. Two Winnipeg school divisions even went so far as to cancel their school resource officer programs.

But it has become clear that the defund the police movement is built on a false premise. While some students might feel unsafe in the presence of police officers, taking away police officers makes everyone, including teachers and students, objectively less safe. Police officers are the people who stand between us and those who wish to do us harm.

For example, if an armed violent offender walks into a school with the intent of harming students, it is not a social worker or a superintendent who will put a stop to the assault. Nor would we expect learning coaches or guidance counsellors to stop the assault. Police officers are the professionals who will run toward a crime scene rather than away from it. That is who we need to protect people in a time of crisis.

Putting school resource officers in schools is also an excellent way to build positive relationships between students and police. These officers do much more than just intervene in dangerous situations. Often, these professionals deliver anti-drug presentations, help school staff resolve minor disputes between students, and hang out with students who need positive role models.

It is also important to note that police detachments have worked hard to diversify their ranks. No longer can it be assumed that all police officers will be the same race and gender. Police officers come from all sectors of Manitoba society, and it is good for students to see that people from different backgrounds are police officers.

It is time to put aside political ideology and accept the reality that placing police officers in schools is sound public policy. If we want our students to be safe, schools need people who can protect them.

Police officers belong in our schools.

Michael Zwaagstra is a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.