The province is vowing to get tough on bullying with its new Education Act, and local teachers say they're all for it.
The province tabled Bill 2, the Education Act, this week. It's meant to replace the current School Act that governs the province's education system.
The bill features a strong focus on bullying prevention. Unlike the School Act, it contains an explicit definition of bullying, defined as "repeated and hostile or demeaning behaviour by a student" intended to cause harm, fear or distress in another individual. It requires students to refrain from and report bullying no matter where or when it happens, requires school boards to create codes of conduct on bullying, and declares the third week of November to be Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week.
"Bullying, frankly, is a problem," Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk said at a news conference, "and there's no point in burying our head in the sand and denying there is a bullying problem."
The province needed to empower schools and parents to prevent bullying, as it demeans kids and can drive them to suicide.
"None of that, on that entire spectrum, is acceptable and should not be tolerated."
Any help in the fight against bullying is welcome, said Shawn Haggarty, principal at Richard S. Fowler junior high.
"It doesn't matter what school in the country [you are in]; the issue of bullying is one you always have to be working towards reducing."
Beyond the schoolyard
Bullying has changed substantially over the last 10 years, Haggarty said, especially with the arrival of cellphones and social media. "Bullying is not just what happens within the school day," he said. "It does extend to the community."
But efforts to stop it have stalled for years due to people rationalizing bullying as "kids being kids," said St. Albert Catholic school board superintendant David Keohane.
"We know that's not acceptable."
This act drags bullying out from under its rock, said Sturgeon School Division board chair Terry Jewell, and should encourage schools to take specific action to address it.
"It's recognized, so it will now get attention."
Research shows that students are less successful at school when they feel unsafe and afraid, Keohane said. Teachers need to create a culture of support and caring for each child that sets high standards for their treatment.
Keohane appreciated how the bill acknowledged that a zero-tolerance, one-size-fits-all approach to bullying would not work: a Grade 1 student with no prior record should not get the same punishment as a high-schooler who starts a huge fight.
He said the more important thing is to ensure nothing is overlooked and that means making sure staff take every case of bullying seriously. It also means making sure staff and students understand what is and isn't acceptable behaviour.
"When expectations are clearly known and understood … it deals with about 85 per cent of your issues," he said, citing his board's research.
Caring schools
St. Albert's three school divisions have many initiatives underway to address bullying and are considered excellent and (in the case of Sturgeon) good by the province when it comes to creating safe and caring schools.
One example is Roots of Empathy — a program that brings newborn kids and their mothers into the classroom. This program teaches kids how to spot and empathize with emotions in other people, said Glenys Edwards of the St. Albert Protestant School district, which should make them less likely to bully others. Students she met as principal of Leo Nickerson Elementary who had been through the course were more empathetic and open to expressing their emotions, she said.
Schools have also started a big push to address cyber-bullying. The Protestant district recently put about 50 students through an "Internet Integrity Day" conference to learn about proper online behaviour, Edwards said — lessons they then took back to their own schools.
The province will require all boards to submit anti-bullying plans to the government, Lukaszuk said, with aim to create common standards and sanctions for bullying.
Stopping bullying can't just be about punishment, Keohane said.
"We need to wrap education around it," he said. "It's to really emulate what a caring family would do."
