By Anna Lise Burnstein
Constable Sue is a celebrity at St. Clare Catholic School in Orleans. In the playground during morning recess, a pack of seven and eight-year-old girls crowd around the uniformed cop for hugs. Some even ask for an autograph.
Sue MacGowan is a school resource officer and oversees 14 schools in Ottawa’s east end. “It’s a good job. I love it,” says the officer.
The School Resource Officer Program is coordinated by the Ottawa police. Every school in Ottawa has an officer who acts as their personal police contact. The officers enforce school regulations as well as the controversial Safe Schools Act, which has been described by critics and supporters alike as a “tough love” solution to bad behavior.
School principals had more discretionary power in how they dealt with problem students before the Safe Schools Act, says Detective Sergeant John Leckie who supervises the program in Ottawa’s east district. The act provides guidelines as to what constitutes misbehaviour and outlines how it should be dealt with.
In the summer of 2000, the Ministry of Education mandated police involvement in school cases involving weapons, drugs, robbery or criminal harassment. It is important to reach the kids before they get involved in crime, MacGowan says, recalling how she once set off a string of calls from concerned parents when she parked her police car in front of a high school. “People couldn’t imagine that I’d actually be here in a pro-active capacity.”
But Robert Hoge, a psychology professor at Carleton University, says the number of serious incidents in schools is too low to justify police presence. “Intrusive security measures distract from an atmosphere conducive to learning,” Hoge wrote in an e-mail. MacGowan recently conducted a random drug search at an Ottawa area high school. Students are warned about these searches at the beginning of the school year, but they aren’t told when they’ll happen. One Grade 12 student was taken by surprise when MacGowan entered her classroom with dogs trained to sniff out drugs. “I was terrified. It was so weird,” the 18-year-old girl recalls.
Her friend, 17, knows that drugs like marijuana move around among his peers, but it causes him little worry. He doesn’t know if it’s necessary to have Const. MacGowan around, but adds, “it’s probably better than having no cops. Maybe without her our school would be worse.”
Back in the Grade 2 classroom at St. Clare Catholic School, the kids are excited about Const. Sue’s visit. “You have a big real gun,” yells one little girl with no front teeth and big brown eyes. MacGowan thinks it’s important for the younger kids to see her in full uniform so that they understand police officers are their friends.