Debate on police in schools briefly lights up OCDSB meeting

School resource officers aren’t going to be returning to Ottawa-Carleton District School Board schools any time soon.

A motion by OCDSB trustee Donna Blackburn was briefly debated at a board meeting Tuesday, but trustees voted to shelve it.

The motion called on the Director of Education to “engage in discussions with the Ottawa Police Service to establish standards of practice that allow for police support to schools respecting the safety and security of the Board’s students, staff and assets.”

However, public delegations who spoke at the meeting said it was a back door to reviving the SRO program, which trustees ended last year. Blackburn was the only trustee who opposed the 2021 decision to end the OCDSB’s participation in the SRO program. Ottawa police pulled their officers from the three other school boards in the city a short time later.

Trustees voted Tuesday evening to postpone Blackburn’s motion indefinitely.