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Bullying
behaviour not tolerated says school board
Friday October 11, 2002
Roderick Benns
It's Wednesday morning at King George Public
School in Peterborough where 25 Junior Kindergarten students are learning
how to identify bullying behaviour.
Teacher Toni Murchison is poking a boy gently with her finger in his arm
to illustrate how annoying bullying can be. She is waiting for him to tell
her 'stop.'
Amidst the laughter in the classroom - and from him -- the boy finally shouts
"stop!"
And she does.
"But what if I didn't stop?" she asks the class.
"What if I kept on doing it?" as she resumes the gentle arm-poking.
"Tell the teacher!" someone shouts.
The scenarios, painted by Murchison, illustrate an approach to bullying
that is woven tightly into the policies of the Province, the school board,
and the schools.
In essence, bullying behaviour is no longer tolerated
in schools. From the earliest possible age on, students are taught to
tell the person doing the bullying to stop, firmly. If that fails, students
are then taught to alert the teacher or nearest adult.
"The message to students is that if someone is bothering you, you
have to tell someone if they don't stop," explains Murchison.
"That is always the first step to a resolution," she adds.
Murchison says they learn that "hands are for helping" in Junior
Kindergarten, not for anything like hitting.
In fact, point 1.3 of the Safe Schools policy developed by the local board
in 1998 (and then tweaked to reflect the Province's Safe Schools Act of
2001), reads that "the board and its school staff will neither tolerate
nor accept behaviours that infringe on the physical or emotional well-being
of students, staff, and/or community members."
In Senior Kindergarten classes, Murchison says one of the key areas discussed
is how each child can send signals that they are not about to be bullied.
Catherine Montreuil, principal of special services at the Kawartha Pine
Ridge District School Board, agrees.
Things like walking with ones shoulders back, demonstrating assertiveness
and being clear with what one is saying goes a long way in sending positive
signals of strength, says Montreuil.
And, as Murchison points out, bullying behaviour is not necessarily developed
at school, either. It can originate in the home within family structures.
It then becomes a matter of figuring out how to adjust behaviour at school
and hope there is some element of reinforcement at home.
The local board is just beginning to track statistics
on bullying and related concepts, so there are no figures to analyze at
this time.
But anecdotally, the awareness of the issue at this point has been very
helpful in curtailing incidences, says Montreuil.
"I think we're in good shape here and getting better at identifying
pockets of problems when they begin," says Montreuil.
Montreuil says that turning away and ignoring bullying behaviour has proven
not to be effective.
"All the literature supports quick intervention," she says.
Interestingly, it is the parents who have older children in the system
who sometimes need convincing of intervention, as the parents believe
intervening will have a detrimental effect on their child from a peer
perspective.
"When we are consistent with bullies, when we are vigilant, that's
when we have success" she says.
With no major episodes of bullying in the district in recent memory, Montreuil
says nonetheless bullying can occur at all age levels and that it is important
to maintain alertness here.
Bullying takes on a different form for older children; boys may get more
physical in their bullying and girls tend to bully socially, through social
exclusion, according to Montreuil.
She points out that increasingly there is a small increase in girls being
more physical as well, but by and large it is a social form of bullying
that seems to be preferred by girls.
Once aware of these types of situations -- which are admittedly more difficult
to pinpoint, says Montreuil -- school officials have to then engage in
discussions about feelings, teaching empathy and even the remediation
of the victim in some way.
This is part of point 8.6 of the Safe Schools policy, which reads that
the "education of students, staff, parents, guardians and school-community
members is necessary in order to understand and respond to societal violence."
"This is through the curriculum directly, in many instances,"
says Montreuil.
She points out social studies units and school assemblies as examples
of where the education is focused - a proactive programming approach that
is a key component of board policy.
"A peaceful community has to be built at all levels," she says.
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