Community leaders and advocates in Hamilton ask province to fund education rather than policing in schools

A group of local advocates and representatives gathered in Hamilton Tuesday to speak against having police in schools and in favour of more funding for public education.

“Fund our schools, not policing in our schools,” Andrea Vásquez Jiménez, director of Policing-Free Schools said outside City Hall. “Rather than addressing the root causes [of violence], including the systemic chronic underfunding of education … the Ford government chooses to siphon funds out of our schools and communities.”

She said her coalition is working internationally to push back against policing in schools, including in Ontario where the provincial government introduced a bill that could bring police into public schools. Policing-Free Schools is campaigning across Ontario and Hamilton was the seventh stop.

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