'Put them back.' Father says son's killer was convicted with help from school resource officer

A father whose son was gunned down more than six years ago is speaking out in support of having police in schools after the young man's killer was identified and convicted with the help of one of those officers.

Gerry Martinez's son, Lorenzo, was shot dead in the lobby of an apartment building at 70 Stevenvale Dr., in the Lawrence Avenue and Markham Road area, on Feb. 11, 2011. The 23-year-old suffered gunshot wounds to his head and neck and died on the way to hospital.

The elder Martinez said a School Resource Officer who had been placed at Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute recognized one of the accused in his son's case, saying at trial she had had contact with the teen both at the school and out in the community.

On Thursday, Martinez said he wanted to speak in defence of the program, which has been temporarily suspended until at least November as the Toronto District School Board engages in community consultations.

• 'An important step': TDSB suspends program that put armed officers in schools

Martinez, who coaches youth football, said the officers help students feel safe at school. The program also helps remove what he called an "unfair stigma attached to police officers."

"They are actually people. And that's what these kids tell me. They didn't know that these guys are so cool," Martinez told CBC Toronto.

The at-risk youth Martinez coaches tell him they like having the officers around.

"They are needed because, one, they feel safe. And two, they are able to talk to them and tell them their issues. What's going on in school, what's going on in their life, how to handle it," Martinez said.

"So they are kind of like a counsellor, for lack of a better word."

Police Services Board also reviewing program

The program was launched in 2008, the year after Jordan Manners was shot and killed at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate. He was 15.

Under the program, officers were deployed in 36 of 75 TDSB schools. However, activist groups such as Black Lives Matter Toronto have been demanding that the program be scrapped as one measure aimed at addressing anti-black racism in the education system.

Opponents say officers in schools intimidate black students, and students from other minority communities.

TDSB trustees voted to suspend the program last month, which means officers did not return to schools when students did after Labour Day. The board will be holding community meetings, while the Toronto Police Services Board is also reviewing the program.

'Put them back'

Martinez said there was surveillance footage from the scene of his son's murder. But because the footage was grainy, it was the officer's testimony that helped put the killer away.

The officer was questioned at trial about how she knew the accused, and she was able to say that "she had contact with him inside and outside the school."

He feels that the media are only reporting one side of the story, the protesters' opposition. And he said he's not the only one who supports having officers in schools.

"I'm not a minority. There's a lot of people who feel the same way I do," he said. "They might not want to come out and say it, but I want to come out and say it because it helped my son."

He accused opponents of the program of having "an agenda," but added: "I don't know what it is."

"One hundred per cent I don't believe it's coming from a good place," he said.

He agreed that an officer can be intimidating at school, but he argued that it would only be to students "who are doing wrong."

Meanwhile, kids tell him that schools aren't as safe as they once were, he said.

"Put them back in the schools."