SCHOOL COP FIGHTS TO FILL THE CRACKS

For the last seven years Ridge Meadows RCMP Const. Andrew Tolchard has
worked at Maple Ridge Secondary and other schools within the district,
educating students on the perils of drug and alcohol abuse.

"I know of no other police officer where pretty much my entire career has
been with youth-related services," said Tolchard, during a rare free moment
at his cozy office in MRSS.

Ever since 1986, when he was working in Vancouver with the Combined Law
Enforcement Unit's integrated task force on youth gangs, Tolchard has tried
to research, diagnose and counsel troubled youth in hopes of keeping them
in school and productive.

The core of Tolchard's work with the integrated task force was to study the
spread of the American street-gang mentality that was triggered by an
influx of Asian and South American refugees coming to live in Vancouver.

Tolchard's career has evolved since then as his focus has shifted more
towards the younger spectrum of the youth population; the elementary and
secondary school age bracket where most of the problems seem to start.

One of four RCMP school liaison officers within School District 42,
Tolchard is responsible for dealing with secondary students from MRSS,
Westview, Mountain View Campus as well as elementary students from
Alouette, Eric Langton, Fairview, Glenwood, Laity View, Maple Ridge and
Mount Crescent.

"Essentially, we are involved in drug and alcohol awareness and education,"
said Tolchard.

"The focus of what we do is providing information to people to make
informed choices."

In some cases, the advice falls on deaf ears.

On Saturday afternoon the funeral for Grant De Patie was held in Surrey. De
Patie, a Maple Ridge Esso Station attendant, was dragged seven and a half
kilometres to his death on March 8 after trying to stop a driver from
fleeing without paying for $12.30 in gas. A 16-year-old boy is charged with
second-degree murder.

Tolchard says "absolutely" he knew all about the 16-year-old who has been
charged with the murder and the 15-year-old who was riding in the car at
the time of the incident.

The car they were driving had been stolen earlier in the evening.

"You always reflect and look back if there was something we could have done
and I'm not sure," said Tolchard. "The problem is so much bigger than what
occurs on the surface. Even though they were attached by name to a specific
school, they weren't really attending."

As Tolchard puts it, there's a "much bigger picture" to a lot of the
tragedies he comes across.

Often times it starts with a broken home life, then graduates into a broken
school life, and before long the negative options increase and there is no
longer anybody who can intervene.

"I think the whole concept of the criminal justice system works well but
when you get extremes it's often hard to cope with these individuals," said
Tolchard. "It's different and unpredictable."

One of the key initiatives Tolchard has worked to develop is a youth
diversion program, similar to the community program run by Lola Chapman. He
believes that along with his diversion program there also needs to
curriculum-based material in place for staff and teachers to implement.

Tolchard would like to see school liaison officers take on a more secondary
role as opposed to being the primary facilitators and being responsible for
all sorts of problem-solving issues.

Take, for example, the issue of cyber-bullying. For the last two years,
Tolchard has been educating parents and children on cyber-bullying and
encouraging parents to be more watchful of what their children are taking
part in over the Internet.

"I think there's a lot of parents that do know what their children are up
to, they're just not taking time to deal with it," said Tolchard.

During an interview with the TIMES, Tolchard brings out transcripts of an
online instant messaging conversation between two Grade 6 students, which
escalated into a physical confrontation when the two students saw each
other at school.

Basically, student A was sending out physical threats to student B via the
Internet. Then, the next day at school student A and student B crossed
paths and student B retaliated by hitting student A. Student A then ratted
him out.

While the incident above involved male students, most cases of
cyber-bullying involve female students.

"Much of what's written is very negative and nasty; there's lots of
threats, veiled threats," said Tolchard.

Tolchard is in the midst of formulating protocol on cyber-bullying for the
school district as well as the RCMP.

There are a whole host of online problems that Tolchard deals with as a
liaison officer, most of which arise when young people start feeling a
little too comfortable while sitting at home surfing the Internet.

"They're sort of hidden behind that medium, thinking there's an anonymity,"
said Tolchard. "Many young people have secret web sites that their parents
don't even know about."

But the number one issue Tolchard deals with is the use of marijuana and
other drugs and the negative impact it has on student achievement. Although
crystal meth has been in the spotlight as of late, Tolchard knows that for
most students marijuana is the drug of choice.

"The issue that we have today is trying to convince young people that this
is a problem," said Tolchard. "I can take a look at a student's report card
and be telling them when they started using marijuana."

Ten years ago, it was a rarity for Tolchard to come across drugs in
elementary schools. Now it's not uncommon, in fact students as young as
Grade 5 are already starting to experiment with marijuana - most of it
stolen from their parent's stash.

So far this year Tolchard has come across six cases involving drugs at the
elementary level.

It may seem as though Tolchard's efforts may be in vain, however he
believes that in a community (Maple Ridge) with the highest number of youth
per capita - the situation is far more positive than what's portrayed in
the media.

On any Friday night he knows he can find a group of about 20-30 kids
hanging around getting wasted who will tell them there's nothing to do but
he also knows that he can visit various places throughout the community
where youth have become involved in different programs.

"Although it may not seem that way, we have a relatively low youth crime
rate," said Tolchard. "We need to understand that (the programs in place)
have worked for a tremendous number of kids and how many tragedies have we
prevented. We're doing a lot."

School District 42 is the only district in the Lower Mainland that offers
financial support for their school liaison program. They pay a portion of
the salary for one of the liaison officers.