Safety Report Outlines 'Crisis of Confidence' in Toronto Schools

There is a community wide "crisis of confidence" in the ability of the Toronto District School Board to ensure its public schools are safe, according to a stinging report released today.

The School Community Safety Panel released a massive report, almost 1,000 pages, containing more than 120 recommendations to improve safety in Toronto public schools.

The report was prepared following the slaying last year of 15-year-old Jordan Manners, who was shot dead inside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in North York.

While interviewing students and staff, panel members uncovered allegations of a 2006 sexual assault against a female Jefferys student who was reportedly forced to perform oral sex in a boys' washroom while other males stood guard. It was not reported to police.

After anonymous surveying of staff and students and reviewing incident records for the last two years, the panel concluded that "there are guns in select schools across the city in non-trivial numbers.

" The panel has also found that sexual assault and sexual harassment are prevalent in TDSB schools."

Among the startling recommendations in the report was that the TDSB should use canine units that specialize in arms detection to patrol schools at random.

In addition, the report calls for all Toronto District School Boards school doors, apart from the front door, to be locked from the outside. And entry and exit from the school doors should be monitored by an adult at all times that the school is in use.

Surveys carried out at Westview Centennial indicated that 23 per cent of students reported that they knew someone who had brought a gun to school in the last two years. However, in the case of Westview, police recorded only one gun incident in the last two years.