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The most recent highlighted a rising problem with gun violence in North American schools. In Canada's largest city, it raised alarms about how .

The recent tragedy is reminiscent of other high-profile shootings within Toronto high schools. In 2007, was fatally shot at school. In the years since Manners's death, on gun violence came out of reports and committees. However, little has been done to improve the danger of gun violence for Toronto teens.

To make things better, policy conversations about gun violence need to shift. They need to expand beyond the person behind the gun and gun regulation and move towards that dismantles systemic barriers and inequities.

Risk factors that lead young people to violence

Many studies indicate that problems like poverty and unemployment that increase the likelihood of an individual gravitating towards gun violence.

In Canada, . A found that in Ontario there was on average only one in-school guidance counselor for every 396 students. Trauma and a lack of attention to it also .

Last year, there were 277 firearm homicides in Canada. According to a by The Centre for Research & Innovation for Black Survivors of Homicide Victims (CRIB), racialized Ontarians account for 75 percent of Canadian gun homicide victims; 44 percent of those victims belong to African, Caribbean or other Black communities.

If we do not improve standards of living and create genuine opportunities in communities, the cycle of poverty, violence and crime will continue.

Disrupting the school to prison pipeline

Education is one of the most effective protective factors in aiding reintegration and mitigating recidivism after release from prison.

There needs to be an ideological shift about the purpose of prisons. They should not be places that punish people by incarcerating them, but spaces that promote their rehabilitation.

As outlined in the , education is a human right that should be upheld for everyone. That right extends to individuals who are incarcerated.

To see where we are with this, the conducted 50 interviews with youth (ages 12-17), staff and teachers at detention facilities and justice system professionals to explore education for youth in detention and the barriers they face.

They found that "facilities were treating youth as security threats to be managed, rather than students deserving of rehabilitation through educational opportunities".

It costs the Correctional Service of Canada .

There is a lack of capacity within incarceration institutions to meet educational demands. And there is a lack of partnerships with school boards and post-secondary institutions .

That lack of access to education is highly problematic given that the .

Harm reduction

A lack of mentorship and culturally relevant, responsive and sustaining education leads to many minoritized identities being pushed out of schools due to the content, policies, and teaching of schools not being reflective of their identities, histories or lived experiences.

For example, 80 percent of school suspensions in Toronto are given to male students. .

To counter this, there needs to be culturally relevant and responsive curriculum content and teaching to support learners and their families in relation to larger unmet needs at the community level.

Police and prevention

If Canada is going to become the egalitarian role model it aims to be on the world stage, the across the country must end.

Instead, more resources and emphasis on community-based intervention and prevention projects must be adopted such as .

Both initiatives propose a . The projects were spearheaded via collaboration between different levels of government, community agencies and non-profits including in Jane and Finch and in Rexdale in Toronto. These are projects I am also involved in. In fact, I started as a youth counselor at YAAACE when I was 17.

is a community-centric interruption model that features frontline "violence disruption workers." These folks have lived experience and deep community connections which strengthens their capacity to build rapport with communities. In this way, they may be able to intervene peacefully and constructively, even in seriously violent or escalating situations.

At YAAACE, another initiative features (people who have been released from incarceration or are incarcerated) to use their strengths in pursuing healthy lifestyle choices and building life skills. This involves access to programming and connecting people with needed social support services in a timely manner.

A to fund community programs such as those mentioned above is a step in the right direction.

Canada needs to start putting the "human" back into the way it treats, responds to and serves marginalized communities.