PROTECT BLACK AND ALL STUDENTS: FORD WANTS POLICE BACK IN SCHOOLS – SAY NO!

Event type: Press Conference and Family-Friendly Rally

Location: Queens Park, South Entrance

Time: 12PM-1PM

ASL Interpretation Provided.

TORONTO, June 26, 2025 /CNW/ – We are a group of Black and allied parents, educators and researchers voicing our opposition to the Ontario government’s legislation which mandates the return of police-in-school (SRO) programs under Bill 33, Supporting Children and Students Act, 2025. Schools must remain safe places for young Black and Indigenous students to learn. Peer-reviewed research and community voices tell us that racism in policing is endemic, causing mass surveillance, arrest, incarceration and overall brutality against Black communities, and particularly young Black and Indigenous people. These harms have been recognized by the Toronto Police Service, the Ontario Human Rights Commission, and the Supreme Court of Canada. 

Generations of young Black and other racialized people have been harmed by SRO programs, and Bill 33 rolls back the clock on racial progress, threatening to expose a new generation of Black learners to harm and violence in their schools. This must be stopped immediately. The proposed legislation—to return to the failed policy of stationing police in schools—endangers the safety, health, and well-being of Black, Indigenous and racialized youth. Bill 33 contravenes provincial equity policies and human rights protections, criminalizes young people in spaces meant for learning, and goes against the decisions taken by school boards across Ontario (in Toronto, Hamilton, Peel and Ottawa) to end the programs due to their harmful impacts on marginalized students. SRO’s do not improve school safety: this has been widely proven and documented. Effective and evidence-based alternatives already exist to make schools safe but to make a greater impact they need Ford’s support. Instead, the Ford government continues to make dramatic cuts to Ontario schools, and is now seeking to replace badly-needed supports with police.

SPEAKERS:

Robyn Maynard, TDSB parent, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto

Charlene Grant, Parents of Black Children

Sam Tecle and Butterfly GoPaul, Jane Finch Action Against Poverty (JFAAP)

Gita Madan, researcher, Education Not Incarceration

Several parents and students impacted by previous police-in-school programs

Sabreina Dahab, Ward two Trustee for the Hamilton Wentworth District School board

Alice Romo, Latinx, Afro-Latin America Abya Yala Education Network (LAEN)

FULL STATEMENT and list of endorsers, STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

SOURCE Black Lives Matter Canada