For its initial salvo, the city allocated $4 million to fund the purchase of high-tech and larger volume of security cameras, more police presence in schools and programs that would improve dealing with sexual assault cases.
The program has three phases. Toronto board chair John Campbell assured the board it will find funds to cove all three phases. "You're looking at adding down the road an additional 90-plus support workers, that could be in the neighborhood of $6 to $7 million extra," Campbell said, quoted by the Globe and Mail.
The proposed tighter safety rules is the result of the death of Toronto student Jordan Manners in 2007 at the C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institutre. Manners was shot a year ago.
Included in the safety aspect is a plan to open girls-only safe areas such as classrooms in middle and high schools where harassed young female students could seek support, assistance and empowerment.
Bullying and intimidation starts in the early primary years and goes through to Grade 12. If there's a place where kids can go and hang out and share stories and talk, where it's just girls, where they feel more comfortable and less intimidated in the school environment, then that's a good thing," Campbell added.
But this early the school program has been criticized, principally by a lawyer who pushed for a probe of safety in Toronto schools. Julian Falconer said the program lacked specific details such as more police presence, a hotline including an online version where bullying and sexual assault incidents could be discussed.
Falconer submitted a 1,000-page report that had 126 recommendations.
