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‘What I am hoping to get out of this is that we don’t have a tragedy, and we make things better,’ says trustee in calling for a review of incidents
The Simcoe County District School Board has voted down a trustee’s request for an independent review of a union’s allegation there are “thousands” of violent incidents in area schools, not the 93 reported by the board.
This is the fourth time Collingwood and Wasaga Beach trustee, Mike Foley, has pushed for a clearer picture of the violence happening in schools.
Trustees who voted against the motion said they were concerned about the cost of a review.
“You can’t put a price on safety,” said Foley during the April 22 board meeting. “We’ve got guns in our schools. We’ve got police in our schools. We’ve had a machete fight. We almost had a school shooting in Collingwood last year. We’re dealing with human trafficking.”
During discussion, education director Dawn Stephens said the board’s processes backed up by the Education Act include specific procurement rules when going out to the market. She noted expenses exceeding $10,000 need to go through a formal procurement process where agencies would bid on the work, which Stephens said would be likely in this case.
“I think there will be a significant cost to this,” said Orillia/Ramara/Severn trustee Jodi Lloyd.
The motion called for a report from the third-party to be returned to trustees by the October 2026 board meeting and as part of its work, consult with parents, students, educators and community partners to gather input. Stephens also shared concern that the timeline wasn’t reasonable.
“To have anything by October, given that for two months we wouldn’t have access to students (due to summer break), that might be an issue,” said Stephens.
“We need to do something about it,” said Foley. “Student safety is not optional … We may not supervise hallways personally, but we are responsible for the policies, the resources, the accountability of systems, and the culture that determines whether children are protected.”
Stephens raised her own concerns about the money.
“I feel like the minister (of education) has been very clear. He does not want trustees stepping outside their role and spending extra money. He wants all funds put back into classrooms and toward student achievement,” she said. “I worry that this would not necessarily fall under that.”
Two of the board’s three student trustees also raised concerns about the cost during discussion.
“Hearing that all this money is going to go towards an external source…I would rather see this money go back into our schools, back into helping to fund resources for students,” said student trustee Maida Perry.
Student trustee Klevin Kim claimed he hadn’t heard anything from students about violence experienced in schools that he represents.
“From at least our experience, as well as our different peers, this is not our reality,” said Kim.
Since 2011, school boards across Ontario have been required to report violent incidents to the Ministry of Education annually.
Violent incidents are defined by the province as possessing a weapon (including possessing a firearm), physical assault causing bodily harm requiring medical attention, sexual assault, robbery, using a weapon to cause or to threaten bodily harm to another person, extortion and hate/bias-motivated occurrences.
According to the SCDSB, violent incidents can also include incidents where no one was harmed or required medical attention. Those incidents may still be dealt with by school administration through suspension, detention or expulsion, but are not reported to the province.
Under the Criminal Code of Canada, assault is defined as the intentional application of force without consent, attempting or threatening to apply force, or accosting or impeding another person while openly carrying a weapon or an imitation thereof. Extortion, hate/bias motivated occurrences and threatening bodily harm may not rise to a level of ‘violence’ under the code.
Foley’s motion considered this week came on the heels of representatives from OPSEU Local 330, the union for educational assistants at the SCDSB, coming forward in November 2025 to allege the board’s annual Safe Schools report outlining annual violent incidents was “inaccurate” because only 93 violent incidents were reported in all their schools last year.
The union alleges the real number is in the “thousands.”
The union noted then that the board’s joint health and safety committee was told in November 2025 there were 784 violent incidents at SCDSB schools in October 2025 alone. Other local teachers’ unions have also called the board’s reporting of school violence “under-reported” and “misleading.”
During discussion on Wednesday, Stephens mentioned that the board’s Safe Schools Committee, which was formed through a motion of trustees that was passed in February of 2024, would be coming forward with their report on the issue of violence in schools likely at the board meeting planned for May.
She noted their report would cover a lot of what was being requested through Wednesday’s motion, and would include suggested strategies for how the board could address it in a better way.
But for Foley, the sheer number of incidents indicate that it’s only a matter of time before there could be a worse outcome at one of the SCDSB’s schools, and he said he wanted to make sure he was doing everything he could to keep the pressure on.
“What I am hoping to get out of this is that we don’t have a tragedy, and we make things better,” he said.
At the end of discussion, Beitz, Foley, Barrie trustee Dana Powell and Midland area trustee Robin Talbot voted in favour of the motion. All other trustees voted opposed. Barrie trustees Lynn Strachan and Lisa-Marie Wilson were absent.
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