‘I’ve been formulating a lot of different ideas and ways to make schools safer…but I was getting blocked,’ says Collingwood/Wasaga Beach trustee Mike Foley
A Collingwood school board trustee, frustrated with a lack of urgency on school violence at the Simcoe County District School Board, has taken his concerns over their heads to “the boss.”
Collingwood/Wasaga Beach trustee Mike Foley confirmed in an interview this week that he has been in direct conversation with the ministry of education and Premier Doug Ford, after struggling to gain traction this year on six different motions at the Simcoe County District School Board table intended to shine a light on violence in schools.
“I honestly feel that I haven’t been able to achieve the level of safety that I think and feel is necessary in our schools,” said Foley. “I felt, if I can’t do it at the board level, then I’ll go to the boss.”
“I’ve been formulating a lot of different ideas and ways to make schools safer…but I was getting blocked,” he said.
Foley has supported six different motions at the board table this year, intended to gather information and try new approaches to addressing violence in schools, all of which have failed at the board table.
Most recently, at the board’s last meeting of the school year in June, a motion to hire two hall monitors for a pilot project to curb violence and vandalism didn’t even get to the board table before being ruled out of order.
“Being that I’ve failed to accomplish everything I set out to do with the board, I reached out to the provincial government,” Foley said this week.
“Violent incidents” are defined in the province’s policy/program memorandum (PPM 120) to include 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.
Representatives from OPSEU Local 330, the union for educational assistants at the SCDSB, said in November that the board’s annual report outlining annual violent incidents under PPM 120 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.”
In Foley’s view, the province’s definition of a violent incident is too narrow, with incidents of assaults not requiring medical attention, human trafficking or gang activity not included in those numbers. He’s advocating for better data collection and legislation that would make schools safer in Simcoe County, and across the province.
“There… are other incidents that didn’t require an incident report. A kick in the groin, a punch in the face, a slap in the chest, a grope – All these things are acts of violence,” said Foley. “They need to be identified and then be dealt with in the most appropriate way.”
“If you’re not identifying them, you can’t deal with them,” he said.
Foley brought his concerns to Simcoe-Grey MPP Brian Saunderson, who helped Foley connect with an assistant to the education minister on July 3.
A representative for education minister Paul Calandra confirmed this week that his office is in touch with Foley. While Foley is targeting reporting definitions, the ministry is pointing to upcoming legislative changes to address safety concerns.
Bill 33, which goes into effect this September, requires school boards to provide local police services with access to school premises and permit police participation in a wide range of school activities, including student safety initiatives, emergency preparedness training, youth engagement programs and road-safety programs.
The minister’s representative said the piece of legislation is intended to reduce school violence across the province.
“Providing police the opportunity to participate in school communities helps foster positive relationships with students and law enforcement, and supports school-based and violence-prevention efforts, helping to keep our schools safe,” said the minister’s press secretary Emma Testani in an email. “We will continue working with police agencies, parent groups, and school boards across the province to bring back youth engagement programs that support students and strengthen school safety.”
In an interview, Saunderson said the provincial government has had many discussions about the increase in school violence post-pandemic.
“We know this is an issue,” he said.
It’s unclear so far whether the SCDSB will make any changes to their police programming policies in their schools this September.
School resource officers and police-led programming like the OPP KIDS program were cancelled by both the Simcoe County public and Catholic school boards in the fall of 2022. Police are only permitted in elementary and high schools in both boards by invitation, and officers are no longer permitted to freely roam the halls.
In May 2023, Collingwood students petitioned the boards to have the program re-instated, but were unsuccessful. Collingwood OPP community safety officer Const. Christine Dineen attends Hope Chapel’s student lunch program daily during the school year so Collingwood high school students have an opportunity to connect off school grounds if they choose.
“When the school boards made the decision…I didn’t agree with it at the time,” said Saunderson, specifically referencing the work of Const. Dineen locally. “If there are sensitivities about having a police officer in a school, then I think we need to deal with that head-on. We don’t just exclude the resource.”
The Simcoe County District School Board declined to answer any questions for this story, including whether they’ll be changing their policies to allow officers to freely roam halls in their schools this September.
However, Collingwood OPP detachment commander Insp. Loris Licharson confirmed in an email that their force has not been made aware as of July 9 of any changes to their arrangement with local school boards for this fall.
“We are continuing to work with our schools and the boards as we have been,” he said.
Foley wouldn’t confirm whether he intends for the trustee seat again in this fall’s municipal election.
“I haven’t made a firm decision yet,” he said.
