Fifteen complaints have been made to School District 43 through the online tool ERASE Bullying but only 10 were found to be bullying, and a review is being conducted of the provincial program.
The review and anti-bullying training for administrators and counsellors is part of the province's commitment to deal with the high-profile issue but SD43 is also dealing with the topic by examining its code of conduct, piloting social responsibility programs and surveying students about their feelings of safety, according to assistant superintendent Julie Pearce.
"We work continually with the adults in our district," she said. "It's crucial for adults to set the tone, and they need to understand what bullying is, and it's our job to foster really strong strategies with kids."
The provincial review of ERASE and SD43 programs comes as the Tri-Cities Family Court and Youth Justice Committee issues a call for a province-wide Safe Schools Policy, tougher federal laws to combat cyberbullying and more reporting and evaluating of bullying complaints.
Pearce said the district is dealing with bullying on a number of fronts but not all conflicts between students are bullying, and both educators and students need to know the difference.
She said there is mean behaviour and peer-to-peer conflict that schools deal with every day. Bullying is different in that it requires a power imbalance and an intention to harm, and is repeated over time.
Marna Macmillan, SD43's social responsibility coordinator, said the district's Safe School Task Force has been working for more than a year on various approaches to improving school culture and safety and has found that what works best are strategies to build relationships and school connectedness. "It's embedding it in the way you teach and the way you deal with classroom climate," she said.
The district is also using restorative approaches to resolve conflicts between those who cause harm and their victims, similar to those proposed by the Tri-Cities Family Court and Youth Justice Committee.
Meanwhile, the provincial ERASE program is helping the district keep track of bullying incidents at local schools. Pearce said five of the incidents reported through ERASE since the fall weren't bullying but concerns related to teachers or other incidents. The rest were bullying complaints, including cyberbullying. They were dealt with by school principals the findings were reported to the Ministry of Education.
