Manitoba school attacks underscore why students need police in their schools

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All Manitoba parents were rightly horrified when a registered sex offender recently sneaked into a Winnipeg elementary school and tried to assault a child in a washroom.

Fortunately, the child was able to escape, and the offender was arrested shortly afterward. But this incident has ignited a new debate about school safety in Manitoba, and hopefully across the country.

Every political party in the province agrees that more needs to be done. The Manitoba government announced it would invest $500,000 in additional school security measures. Premier Wab Kinew also expressed his personal support for putting more police officers, also known as school resource officers, in schools.

Sadly, this incident came only a few short months after a violent sword attack in a Brandon high school where a teenage boy was stabbed multiple times. Thanks to the immediate intervention of a school resource (police) officer, the offender was quickly subdued. The boy sustained serious injuries, but he was not killed.

It is time to move past ideology and recognize that placing police officers in schools is sound public policy.
Image by Christopher Ryan

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