Event: Marc Garneau in the News

Walking the high school police beat
(Posted Date: Monday, January 5, 2009)

After a semester of having our cops in our schools the Town Crier looks at how it's working
By Karolyn Coorsh

NOT A HALL MONITOR: Constable and former teacher Andrew Rosbrook says he wants the students at Marc Garneau CI to be comfortable with him and not to see him as an enforcer of school rules.
It's two days before winter break at Marc Garneau CI, yet not all students are in a merry mood.

One is standing in Police Constable Andrew Rosbrook's office in the main hall reporting that his cell phone has been stolen. He had it in the cafeteria, he says annoyed, and later it was gone.

Rosbrook, a 54 Division officer, asks if he has a suspect description. The young man says no.

With no suspect, Rosbrook tells the student to file a report on the Toronto police central hotline before returning to him.

It's one of many situations Rosbrook deals with as a School Resource Officer, one of 30 uniformed cops who work full time in Toronto high schools.

The program, a partnership between Toronto Police and the Toronto public and Catholic school boards, is just finishing its inaugural semester.

Rosbrook says he's settling in well at the Flemingdon area high school, which boasts a student population of about 1,800.

It's a balancing act, he said as he sat in his small office next to a box of Tootsie Roll candies waiting to be delivered to students for the holidays.

Rosbrook wants students to feel comfortable enough to talk to him but he's not to be viewed as another teacher or hall monitor. He is uniformed and armed at all times in the school, something several trustees and parents voiced concern about when the program was first announced.

Although it hasn't happened during the first semester at Marc Garneau, in a lockdown situation, "I would be the first person on scene", Rosbrook said.

"I'm very pleased to say that since I've been here, there have been very few incidents."

Still students understand his role is not that of an enforcer, Rosbrook said.

"There's still the occasional student who will walk down the hallway and take their hat off because it's a school discipline thing," he says. "I'm not responsible for school discipline ... That would be, again, treading on the toes of the staff."

Instead, his main role here is creating trust and educating the students, Rosbrook said.

"I was talking to a careers group; we did some work on bullying and I got tremendous response," he said. "I find that students here are almost all extremely respectful of the position.

"That, to an extent, surprised me: just the amount of students who will just drop in, feel comfortable dropping in."

Some are comfortable enough to approach for school assignments.

When a grade 12 student asked Rosbrook if he could work with him to complete mandatory volunteer hours, the police constable told him to round up a group of like-minded students. The student returned with a list of about 26 cell phone numbers and email addresses.

Now the officer is liaising with Valley Park Middle School across the street to get the students mentoring their younger peers.

"It makes you realize you are bridging that gap between students (and police)," he said.

Sometimes a student will want to ask about the law, not just enforcing it.

"Probably the majority of them drop in to ask me about traffic laws because they're all getting to a point where they're getting their drivers licences," he said.

Despite having worked as a teacher in England, Rosbrook said he's still getting used to the school environment, including visiting classrooms, working with the Empowered Student Partnership program and organizing activities like an anti-bullying poster campaign.

"The very broad job description for me is to improve safety in the school and in the community, and it's done in a very gradual way," he said.

This article also found in:
Beach - Riverdale - East York,Leaside Rosedale

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Posted Date: Monday, January 5, 2009
Story Location: http://www.towncrieronline.ca/main/main.php?direction=viewstory&storyid=7617