JENNY GERBASI RESPONDS

I am glad to see students writing into the Free Press to express their
views and speak up in support of their school. I also want to let
students, parents and teachers at Kelvin High School know that I
regret it if my comments about drugs left the impression that Kelvin
was being singled out. I stated then and will repeat that all high
schools have problems with drugs.

To put my remarks in context, they were said at a committee meeting in
which I was trying to get through to other councillors that we need to
put a crime prevention initiative in place to deal with school
problems such as drugs, bullying and other issues.

The School Resource Officer Program exists in the North End and
similar programs exist citywide in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and
Regina. The North End pilot project was evaluated and considered to be
a huge success as a crime prevention approach. The proposal to expand
this program throughout the Winnipeg School Division has come from
parent councils, school administrators and the community at large.

I agree with comments by the students that drugs are a choice made by
students. However, the idea of creating proactive and preventative
programs such as SROP have been shown to have a positive impact on
vulnerable students in terms of steering them away from choosing
criminal activity through having positive contact and role modeling
from police officers.

I want people to know that I think Kelvin is an excellent school. I
also want you to know that my only intention in making the comments
was to convince city council to support a program that I think our
community needs and would be a great benefit for students and families
in the Winnipeg School Division.

Jenny Gerbasi,

Councillor, Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry