Regina’s Public and Catholic School Divisions are going to review their school resource officer program with the Regina Police Service.
The review will be conducted by a third party organization, it is unclear at this time how residents will be able to voice their opinion on the matter, but both school divisions have made it clear that will be a priority when the review comes to fruition during the next school year.
Public schools spokesperson Terry Lazarou says the time was right to conduct this review.
“Well we’ve heard from a number of our stakeholders that they want to look at all aspects of the school resource officer program,” Lazarou said. “The goal is to see whether it’s effective and working and whether or not there are opportunities for change and improvement.”
Lazarou said the RPSD believes there’s a real benefit to having school resource officers in schools.
“No only are they complimentary to the learning that’s going on in schools, but they also provide an added level of comfort and security when there is an emergency in the community.”
Domenic Scuglia, the Director of Education for the Regina Catholic School Division, agrees, adding he sees a real benefit to having school resource officers in the building, noting that the program has been around since 1949.
“That’s a long time, and so the purpose of the review is to identify the strengths of the program, see where it’s meeting targets, and then to identify any areas that require some tweaking possibly and some adjustment to make it even better,” he said.
Scuglia said he sees a continued real benefit to having school resource officers in schools.
“The relationship between schools and school resource officers is one that we try to build positive relationships within the school, so that our students grow up having an understanding of police officers and he good people who are there to protect society.”
Along with a Sergeant that oversees the program, there are 14 school resource officers that cover both the Regina Public and Catholic school divisions.
