Bullying grabs board's attention
GUYSBOROUGH - The issue of bullying grabbed the attention of the Strait Regional School Board at their regular monthly meeting in Mulgrave last Wednesday night. East Antigonish representative Frank Machnik added the issue to the agenda for the evening.
"This problem has been going on for years," said Machnik in an interview Tuesday. He said that for him the issue came to a head at a school advisory meeting recently.
"The parents wanted me to be there…they wanted to get this thing straightened out once and for all." He said in that case, two families actually ended up transferring their children out of the school because of "constant harrassment."
"It was a very emotional meeting. You could see people hurting. Two mothers were actually weeping. I could feel for them and feel for their children."
At Wednesday's board meeting, a number of board members spoke about the issue of bullying.
West Guysborough representative Kim Horton of Port Bickerton says bullying in our schools is a very serious issue. During an interview from her home Thursday, Horton said she has been approached by parents who feel the board is "passing the buck" on bullying because of the process sometimes involved in addressing the issue.
"I do feel it's a growing issue and I feel that with kids using computers and more technology, sometimes there's no way they can get away from it. It can follow you home." She says another problem is that some parents are in denial when confronted with the suggestion that their child might be bullying.
She said board members are in favour of putting more resources into addressing bullying and the issue will be looked at during future budget planning meetings.
Chedabucto Place Academy's acting principal, Archie Chisholm agrees that many cases of bullying they are seeing today are coming into the school as a result of what the students are doing online over the weekend and on evenings.
Chisholm, an educator in Guysborough County for the past 29 years, says today's focus on bullying is more likely a result of less tolerance of such abuse today and more people reporting it, than it is a reflection of an increase in incidents.
"Bullying has been around since the dinosaur era, but it certainly has been brought to the forefront in recent years," he says, adding that it's not just cases of hitting and kicking, but more and more psychological bullying that's being reported today. These latter cases, often seen in the junior high grades, involve things such as ostracizing one child from a group, or online bullying (which typically takes place through instant-messaging programs, such as MSN).
Chisholm says this type of bullying is most commonly seen in grades six, seven and eight and is often affected by gender. "It can be nasty."
Staff members at Chedabucto Place Education Centre in Guysborough have been trained in Lions Quest in recent years, a program aimed at developing peaceful schools. Chisholm says efforts to respond to bullying are increasingly focused on education, as opposed to strictly discipline. For example, in his school Grade six students currently have weekly educational sessions that focus on awareness of bullying. As part of Chedabucto's school improvement plan this year, an effort is being made to start moving this type of educational programming into the junior and high school grades.
"We're trying to be proactive," says Chisholm. "But in a lot of situations, you end up being reactive."
He adds that addressing the problem will take time.
"It didn't happen overnight and it's not going to be fixed overnight."
East Guysborough school board member Rosalee Parker says she agrees with superintendent Phonse Gillis that teachers and school administrators are doing a good job of addressing bullying. She adds that the board will have to give schools more resources to address the problem if they want to see more done, which is a challenge given budget restraints.
