Re: “Setting the record straight on police in schools,” commentary, Jan. 3.

B.C. human rights commissioner Kasari Govender claims that the ongoing debate about police in schools has been plagued by “misinformation” and “fear mongering.” She says that the best way to avoid fear mongering is to implement evidence-based policy.

So, what evidence does Govender provide? She reports that certain identity groups are “far over-represented in arrests and detentions by police.” She then declares, in a bizarre non sequitur, that this is evidence of “discriminatory policing.”

Govender then moves to her policy recommendation. Victoria’s police liaison officers cause harm, at least when it comes to how they are perceived by certain identity groups. She seems to believe that the police are, by definition, guilty of discrimination against “Indigenous, Black, and other radicalized children” simply because children from these identity groups feel unsafe in their encounters with police.

This is an excellent example of fear mongering.

If a child is afraid of the monster under the bed, one does not help the child by amplifying the child’s fears.

Yes, the evidence shows that the child is afraid of the monster. The child’s feelings, after all, are perfectly real.

But rather than encourage the child’s fear, the logical thing to do is to show the child that there is nothing to fear. The monster under the bed will not eat the child.

It is a........

© Times Colonist