School Liaison Officers Will Continue, Op-ed

NOTE: The following is an op-ed piece from Education Minister Ramona Jennex.

I commend the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board for its decision this week to maintain and potentially expand the School Liaison Officer Program to more schools.

This is a good decision that will have positive benefits for more students in Cape Breton.

I, and my Cape Breton colleagues, value this service and are pleased the Department of Education, the Cape Breton-Victoria board and Cape Breton Regional Police Service have been able to find a solution to preserve the service for another year, while we work together on a longer-term plan.

We all agree it is important to have that strong link between local police and our schools. Having a police officer affiliated with a school, or family of schools, offers police and the school community a wonderful opportunity to build strong relationships, promote understanding and awareness, youth mentorship and, as a result, a safer community.

The board's school liaison officer program will now have four officers between the board's five high schools and a number of their feeder schools. My expectation is that we can adapt to a new model of service that will allow more students at more schools to benefit from the relationship.

The province has agreed to continue to cost-share this service for another year. This will allow the board and police time to develop a more efficient and cost-effective service similar to models in other school boards.

Police services across Nova Scotia provide a model of where officers visit a number of schools as part of their job, at no cost to boards.

While it is important to have strong links with police, I think it is also essential that everyone understand that our schools are already very safe and welcoming places for students, parents and staff.