School board hires police to patrol Saunders Secondary after racial tensions flare

The Thames Valley District School Board will hire a police officer to patrol Saunders Secondary School next week after Indigenous students reported being taunted and threatened with violence at the west-end high school.

School board officials met for most of the day with community members from Chippewa of the Thames First Nation, Oneida Nation of the Thames and Munsee Delaware Nation.

It comes on the heels of a week of escalating tensions which included reports of fights in the parking lot of nearby Westmount Mall.

That culminated Friday in the Indigenous communities cancelling busing into the high school, saying they feared for student safety.

"The school has made us aware of certain things that have happened through the course of the week. We want to remind the public that safety is our number one priority," said London Police Const. Tanya Alexander.

"Because of the tensions, we have increased police presence in the area."

The school resource officer, who usually visits the school once a week, will be going to the school every day in an effort to de-escalate the situation, Alexander added.

"We find a lot of systemic racism against our communities and a lot of people are sick of it. We're almost at 2020, what's going on? How is reconciliation really happening" said mom Pamela Chisjohn, whose daughter attends Grade 8 at Westmount Public School, next door to Saunders.

'There's talk of weapons'

Chrisjohn is from Oneida, and she kept her daughter home Friday out of fear.

"A lot of the parents who are attending the meeting were students at Saunders. The grandparents who were there talked about what they encountered 30 years ago, 20 years ago, last year. It's an ongoing thing that hasn't been addressed adequately."

It's possible the extra security next week won't be needed because schools could be shut down by a potentialCUPE strike.

TsistaKennedy was Canada's first Indigenous student trustee, and went to Saunders. He was at the meeting Friday, and said he's worried about the escalating tensions.

"It has gotten to a point where it is going to be hard to make amends. There's talk of weapons, there's threats of weapons," Kennedy, 18, said.

"It could be just intimidation, but it needs to be taken seriously because the risk is there. First and foremost, we need the police to prioritize this to make sure that nothing happens. They are bringing people from outside of the school to the school grounds and intimidating our Indigenous students."

Kennedy's sister, Chiara Kennedy, 16, is a current student at Saunders. She said she doesn't want the tensions to detract from her schooling.

"We are scared of what might not happen for us as Indigenous people because sometimes we are not prioritized by the school system," she said. "The only thing we're scared of is not getting the help we need to resolve this issue."

Report behaviour

In a written statement Friday following the meeting, the Thames Valley District School Board said it will be contacting parents and guardians of students involved in the incidents.

It is hoping for support to resolve tensions, however the board is also asking anyone who sees unsafe behaviour to immediately contact the principal or police.