Malton high school locked down after gun call
2008-10-30 10:03:10.000
Lincoln M. Alexander Secondary School has gone into lockdown this morning after the vice principal saw a student carrying a gun.
Two students have been arrested in connection with the incident.
The gun call was reported to Peel Regional Police just before 9:30 a.m. at the school on Morning Star Dr. in Malton.
Police say the student in question was with another teen and may have temporarily barricaded himself in a room on the second floor. But he then fled the school. Officers arrested two teens near the Malton Community Centre.
The teen reportedly carrying the gun is described as male, black, with a small build, short, with cropped hair, wearing a black coat and carrying a black and white checkered knapsack.
The lockdown procedure required all outside doors of the school be locked, classroom doors kept closed, and staff and students lie down on the floor away from doors and windows.
http://www.mississauga.com/article/20477
'My community is hurting,' says councillor
2008-10-31 09:18:44.000
A Mississauga councillor says some local and Regional politicians are missing the whole point of a youth drop-in program that seeks to address the issue of preventing violence in two at-risk neighbourhoods.
Ward 5 Councillor Eve Adams, who introduced a motion seeking funding for a youth drop-in program at Malton Community Centre and Sheridan Branch library in Mississauga, was irked that the issue is being tossed back and forth between local and Regional council while violence among youth remains a huge concern.
When Adams presented the motion for the drop-in centre during a local council meeting Oct. 22, Mississauga councillors voted to defer the issue of funding to the Region, but when presented there, some councillors had a change of mind.
“We need to do something,” Adams said. “I have a high school (Lincoln Alexander Secondary School) in lockdown as we speak. Clearly, we all have some responsibility. I would like both the City and Regional staff to work together. My community is hurting.”
Both Adams and Ward 8 Councillor Katie Mahoney said the drop-in centres will provide camaraderie for youth who, instead of being isolated, can be inside safe spaces listening to music or just talking to other youths.
“There's a youth drop-in centre at the City of Mississauga in Meadowvale and it receives funding from the Region of Peel,” Adams explained. “In the end, it is not about recriminations and whose responsibility it is. It is very clear that we need both enforcement and prevention and outreach to youth.”
Mississauga councillors who opposed the motion said not enough research on the subject has been conducted and wanted City staff to study the idea in-depth.
Peel Regional Police recently recruited 27 new police officers. Twelve of those officers will be in Malton starting tomorrow to tackle the issue of increasing violence in the community.
“This is about providing positive recreational outlet for young people,” Adams said. “We don't want them to find friendship and brotherhood in gangs or just be talked into crazy ideas by their friends.
http://www.mississauga.com/article/20522
Malton battles its demons
2008-11-01 09:35:20.000
Priscilla Dixon's eyes light up when she talks about her neighbourhood of Malton. This is a young person who takes serious pride in her community.
It's a refreshing outlook. Pride in Malton – the small, geographically isolated suburb in northeast Mississauga – is scarce these days. The modest neighbourhood, bordered by Brampton, Rexdale and Pearson International Airport, has seen an increasing number of homicides and other violent crimes over the past year.
"I think that once you look past all that, there are good people in this community and the community itself is very friendly, very loving," said Dixon, 23, who moved from Texas to Malton five years ago to study communications and information technology at U of T's Mississauga campus. Fresh out of school, she's now looking for a job with the help of Malton Neighbourhood Services, a non-profit organization providing settlement and community support services.
"When we were new here, people were friendly, people in our apartment were open, they extended open arms," Dixon said. "When I'm here, I'm not frightened."
But crime statistics give many residents and politicians pause. This year, five of Peel's 24 homicides occurred in Malton, many gang-related. According to Peel police statistics, violent crimes in 21 Division, which includes Malton and south Brampton, have increased steadily over the past three years, second only to Brampton's 22 Division. And while Peel saw an overall decrease in violent crime between 2006 and 2007, the decline was less than Toronto experienced.
Malton is a yet another example of a suburban area caught in the crosshairs of violent crime in a ring of lower-income neighbourhoods surrounding Toronto's more prosperous core. Some blame geography, arguing that gangsters from Rexdale and Brampton use Malton as a meeting ground for drug deals. Others say there aren't enough social services to keep immigrant kids occupied while their parents work two jobs.
Malton, once a centre for aircraft building and war pilot training, has been a community of working-class newcomers since the early British wave that settled in after World War II.
But the demographics have changed noticeably, as has the local economy. Postwar Italian and Polish immigrants have given way to those from South Asia and the Caribbean, and immigrants now comprise more than 64 per cent of Malton's population, according to a 2006 report by the Social Planning Council of Peel.
Councillor Eve Adams, whose ward encompasses Malton, says it's these factors that show the need for more social programs and jobs in the neighbourhood.
Last week, Adams proposed to city council and the budget committee that a youth drop-in centre be created in Malton, an idea she says received support. That follows after-school programs launched three years ago at several schools.
"You've got a lot of new immigrants in the community and people generally who are working two jobs, so their children are home alone," Adams said. "You don't want kids alone at home isolating themselves and then finding that brotherhood in gangs."
Joyce Temple-Smith, executive director of Malton Neighbourhood Services, says the area's biggest need is jobs.
"Not just any jobs, but jobs that pay enough to live a dignified life," she said.
"A lot of the newcomers are very well educated. Some of them could do far more advanced jobs in Canada but they can't because they don't have the proper accreditation."
Temple-Smith says young people in Malton need to be made more aware of job opportunities, particularly in the skilled trades, that don't require lengthy education.
http://www.mississauga.com/article/20570
