A commentary by a former board chair of the Greater ­Victoria Board of Education.

As students return to classrooms this week across the Greater Victoria School District, another presence is returning as well.

School police liaison officers are once again walking the halls of SD61 schools. Their return is a powerful victory for common sense, community partnership and the parents who refused to be sidelined by a board of trustees unwilling and unable to listen to their constituents.

The decision to bring back SPLOs is a welcome course correction. It comes after the program was abruptly removed in June 2023 by a board determined to demonstrate ideological virtue, not ­practical leadership.

That decision was met with immediate backlash. Parents, teachers and faith-based community leaders condemned the move. Perhaps most importantly, the leaders from the Esquimalt and Songhees nations pointed out that they were not consulted before the removal of a long-standing Indigenous liaison officer who had built trust with their youth.

The school board did not waver. All nine trustees stood by the decision to remove the program until the very end, vigorously supported by the Greater ­Victoria Teachers’........

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