Violence in Toronto's schools is citywide: report

Dogs recommended to sniff out guns in student lockers

Last Updated: Thursday, January 10, 2008 | 7:13 PM ET

CBC News

A report on violence in Toronto schools says gun-sniffing dogs may be needed to combat a problem that is not restricted to troubled neighbourhoods in the northwest area of the city.

'Ladies and gentlemen, nothing could be further from the truth than that this is a problem involving the black kids at Jane and Finch.'—Panel chairman Julian Falconer

Lawyer Julian Falconer, who led a three-member school community safety advisory panel, stressed there have been scores of incidents involving guns in schools in other Toronto areas.

"Ladies and gentlemen, nothing could be further from the truth than that this is a problem involving the black kids at Jane [Street] and Finch [Avenue]," he said Thursday as the report was officially released.

"That's simply an utter, specious myth."

The report was scheduled for release Monday, but advance excerpts were obtained by many media outlets, hastening its release.

The panel was assembled by the Toronto District School Board after the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners in a hallway of C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in May. Falconer asked for a moment of silence in the boy's memory before outlining the panel's findings.

Lawyer Julian Falconer, who headed a panel on violence in Toronto schools, says sniffer dogs should be used to find guns in student lockers.
(CBC)

According to the panel, Toronto's school system has become a place where violent incidents go unreported, and where there is fear among both students and staff.

The report says a "culture of fear, or culture of silence, permeates through every level of the TDSB [Toronto District School Board]."

The panel made more than 100 recommendations, one involving the creation of a website on which students could file anonymous reports of violence.

But the idea getting the most attention involves buying sniffer dogs that would seek out guns in student lockers and other hiding places.

The report says that "all potential storage areas for weapons" should be subject to "regular non-intrusive searches, including consideration being given to the random usage of TDSB-owned canine units that specialize in firearms detection."

Falconer said the dogs would not be large or aggressive and would merely sit in front of lockers when they smelled guns inside.

In releasing the report, he highlighted the results of a survey of students at North York's Westview Centennial Secondary School. Twenty-three per cent said they knew someone who brought a gun to school in the previous two years, and six per cent said they knew four people who did so.

The danger is from "disengaged, marginalized youth" who are legally required to attend school, Falconer said.

He said the board needs more funding to ensure schools are safe, but stressed that hard-nosed enforcement is not the answer.

"We miss the point if we believe that the road to health involves punishing or using enforcement methods to try to re-engage youth. It doesn't work. We suspend in droves. It fails." Falconer said.

"We as a society failed these youths. The Toronto school board is downstream and houses these youths between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. from Monday to Friday."

Among other recommendations by the panel:

• Transfers between schools should not be used as an alternative to discipline, and administrators should not urge judges or police to impose conditions that require students to be transferred from their home schools.
• School uniforms should be required except where individual school councils opt out. The uniforms should comply with the Ontario Human Rights Code and should be affordable, and the board should subsidize the cost where necessary.
• In cases of sexual assault on students under 16, school officials should report the crime to the police and, barring exceptional circumstances, notify the victim's parents.
• In cases of sexual assault on students 16 or older, the decision to file a police report and/or notify parents should be left to the student "in order to encourage victims of sexual assault to come forward and protect the school community."
• Students should be required to wear identity cards on lanyards around their necks "for the purposes of quickly identifying students and intruders."

The school board issued a statement saying it welcomes the report.

"These insights will, I am confident, guide us as we make our schools the safest and fairest learning environments they can be, for each and every one of our students," TDSB director of education said in the statement.

Doug Joliffe, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, said he outlined the problems from his members' perspective in discussions with the panel.

"I don't think it's such a culture of fear — more a culture of frustration," he told CBC News before seeing the full report.

"There is bitter frustration that has been expressed to [the OSSTF] by members, that they don't feel they get the support they need in dealing with the issues in the halls at their schools."  

"There's been incidents where teachers have tried to enforce rules where they have instead been told not to do so. So the frustration happens."