Officials with London’s Boys and Girls Club are calling for police and school board staff to apologize after they say officers stormed the downtown recreation centre Thursday afternoon without warning with their weapons drawn and arrested a young person taking an alternative education class.
Police were called to the Horton Street club at about 1:20 p.m. after getting a report that someone at the club had a weapon, a police spokesperson told CBC News. One person was taken into custody but no weapon was found, Const. Matt Dawson added.
“This was an egregious misstep and a miscalculation, and I think it was handled absolutely inappropriately,” Kirsten Krose, chair of the board of the Boys and Girls Club of London, said Thursday. “At the very least, there should be a public apology from the police board and the school board for the lack of communication and how they conducted this investigation.”
There were no young children in the building at the time, but there were seniors who are part of a 50+ social club that uses the space, said Boys and Girls Club CEO Brett Gatt. Students aged 14 to 21 were also there, part of the Cornerstone alternative education program offered by the Thames Valley District School Board.
“Our staff responded professionally and quickly and made sure that everyone was safe,” Gatt said.
The person who was taken into custody was attending the Cornerstone program and the tip about a possible weapons came from the school board.
‘Overuse of force’
The fact that the club was not given a heads-up about the large police presence, including officers with large weapons, is problematic, said Krose.
“There was a lack of communication that led to potential harm and and trauma for youth that are in the building,” she said. “They should have worked with us to create a solution that could have protected potential members from being exposed to any kind of trauma from seeing weapons and armed police storming a building without notice.”
The Boys and Girls Club works had to build trust between its members and police officers, Krose said.
“What they did erodes some of that safety and confidence. This is a sensitive population so something like this needed to be handled with greater care. This was an overuse of force.”
The club has policies and procedures in place for a myriad of emergency situations and could have worked with police, she added.
CBC News has reached out to police and school board officials for comment.
