Every school in Manitoba must undertake a safety review and send the assessment to the Department of Education, the provincial government says, responding to a child being assaulted last week.
“Nothing else matters unless our kids are safe,” Premier Wab Kinew said Monday at the Manitoba School Boards Association office in Winnipeg.
“What happened at Darwin School last week should never happen. My thoughts are with this child and their family.”
A student at the kindergarten to Grade 8 school in Winnipeg’s St. Vital area was assaulted in a bathroom on Nov. 27 by a man who is a registered sex offender.
Scott William George, 28, is charged with assault and forcible confinement in connection with the incident.
Police allege he entered an elementary school and hid in a bathroom, then grabbed the student when they came out of another stall. The child was able to fight back and break free and was not physically hurt.
Education and Early Childhood Learning Minister Tracy Schmidt has directed all school divisions to submit an emergency response plan for review of all of their schools. It will include how access is controlled at all entrances.
“Every school in Manitoba should be thinking about a locked-doors policy,” Kinew said.
All school divisions must submit their reports to the government by Dec. 25.
There are 37 school divisions and 690 public schools in Manitoba.
The province has set aside $500,000 for the school boards association to provide training sessions for all divisions and develop a provincewide online school safety training module for staff.
The training will cover controlled access, risk identification, emergency response and related safety protocols, a news release from the province says.
The MSBA is also being asked to convene a provincial school safety forum, bringing together education leaders, law enforcement, child welfare partners and community experts to discuss system-wide safety improvements.
“We will bring leaders together to share best practices,” Schmidt said. “Nothing is off the table. We’re going to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can so that something like this never happens again to any family in Manitoba.”
George was previously jailed for groping a six-year-old girl. As a result, he was prohibited from having contact with children or being in spaces where they would typically be.
But earlier this year, in March, he was arrested again after a custodian at Dakota Collegiate saw him wandering the hallways of that school, just blocks from Darwin.
Criticism has been levelled at the government for not having George listed on the provincial government website for sex offender notifications.
A parent at Darwin School said there at least should have been a community notice issued about George after he breached his conditions at Dakota Collegiate so that schools in the area would be on alert.
Kinew, when asked Monday if that should have been done, said, “Yeah, I think that’s pretty obvious.”
Asked why George wasn’t on the provincial website, Kinew said bluntly, “He should have been.”
He said he wanted to focus Monday’s news conference on reassuring students and parents that Manitoba schools are safe.
He also said that’s the message the media should be providing, then added, “If you want to do a press conference tomorrow on the justice angle of this incident, I’d be happy to answer any and all questions.”
When the incident at Darwin happened, around 1:30 p.m., the school was placed in a hold-and-secure situation, meaning outside doors were locked.
George had left before police arrived, but a witness in a vehicle followed him to a nearby mall, where police found him and arrested him.
“This incident has made us all, and school leaders, certainly pause and re-evaluate their safety practices and policies,” Schmidt said.
“At Darwin School, I know there are control mechanisms and measures in place. Clearly, what was in place didn’t work.
“So we need to make sure that we’re working with that school division and every school division … to make sure we’re identifying whatever gaps might exist.”
Alan Campbell, president of the school boards association, welcomed the “renewed focus on school safety” and said divisions will work “to make sure the investments by the provincial government are put to the very best use that they can be in ensuring the unique needs of community schools across the province are met.”
One option is adding more school resource officers, even though the program came under fire just a few years ago.
A report commissioned by Winnipeg’s Louis Riel School Division in 2021 found having officers in schools led to increased risks and feelings of fear and discrimination, particularly among Black and Indigenous students and people of colour.
The division scrapped its school resource officer program later that year.
But on Monday, Kinew and Schmidt repeatedly talked about the value of having an officer in schools.
“I know there’s different opinions out there in the community … but I agree with the premier, that I think school resource officers have a role to play in Manitoba,” Schmidt said.
“We saw the fantastic role that school resource officers can play, we saw that play out just in June in Brandon.”
A school resource officer intervened in a sword attack at Neelin High School and likely saved a student’s life, if not many students’ lives, Schmidt said.
“Our government supports the role that they have to play and we look forward to working with school divisions to see how we can enhance that role, if that’s what the school community deems is necessary,” she said.
