Standalone policies that step up enforcement to prevent bullying based on sexual orientation are not the answer, a high school principal told School District 57 trustees Tuesday..
Instead, Prince George secondary school principal Sherry Thibault says education is the key to acceptance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students. Once society comes to accept those students have just as much right to express themselves in their schools as anybody else, and school staff members learn how to crack down on discrimination and punish the perpetrators, then students will feel more comfortable about attending school.
And those days are coming, Thibault says.
Just as it took years for the integration of special-needs students into the mainstream school population 25 years ago, Thibault says it's only a matter of time before LGBTQ students feel that same sense of acceptance.
"It kind of reminds me of when we went back to inclusive education with special needs students, it took time to shift that culture, and now there's not an educator or a student I know who would undo any of that work that was done," said Thibault, who presented the findings of a panel on bullying.
The culture shift is already taking place within the current generation of students. Where decades ago, students outside the mainstream generally kept their sexual orientation a secret, now they are making their presence known in schools and speaking out against injustices.
"Part of the reason we're seeing the amount of attention to it that we are is kids are more comfortable being who they are -- they're coming out and saying they have a right to demonstrate their sexual orientation at school, and it's drawing attention," said Thibault.
"Now, as a staff and as a community, we have to know how to respond. This is not new. It's been around for decades, but it's new that we have to address it in a manner that's proactive. There's an intolerance in our community and that's what we're trying to shed."
Kelly Road secondary school Grade 10 student Graeme MacKenzie served on the panel as a student representative and told the board that students are reluctant to report bullying incidents because that often makes the situation worse.
"Bullying affects the student environment more than any other aspect besides the teacher teaching the student," said the 16-year-old MacKenzie. "I know kids who don't want to come to school because they're afraid they're going to get picked on by the kids who pick on them every single day.
"I reported bullying throughout my whole life when I was being bullied, which was quite a phenomenal amount when I was younger. The bully is brought to the office and suspensions are given sometimes. But what happens after the suspension is over? The student keeps reporting it and the person keeps getting reprimanded until the point where the student feels reprimanding isn't going to do anything, so they don't come forward."
PGSS has a gay-straight alliance group within the school that is open to all students in the city. PGSS teachers Sue Trabant and Greg Laing had planned to introduce a staff training program specifically geared to LGBTQ bullying, however the teachers job action prevented the staff meetings needed to unveil the program.
Trabant and Michelle Chapman of Glenview elementary continued Tuesday to press the school board for a standalone anti-bullying policy but Truman Spring, SD 57's district principal of special education, believes the existing policy on student behaviour is sufficient.
"With the policies we've got, the discipline is there, we've got the infrastructure to deal with an awful lot of the discipline issues and it's very prescriptive, however, what we really do need to have are programs and support within the schools to create sensitivity, to develop tolerance and awareness in students," said
"If that can happen, we have a chance of abating an awful lot of the bullying that takes place."
Cyberbullying takes place at all hours of the day through social networks and because of the anonymity of computers it's difficult for school administrators to take action to stop it. But technology can be used in a positive way and Spring said the Nanaimo school district has introduced an app that can be downloaded on smart phones that allows students to anonymously report bullying incidents.
"The key thing is to develop a culture so groups of kids will identify the bully and move forward," Spring said. "The question is, how do we make people aware, how do we make people feel they can be heard, they can be safe in their environment, and that's a tough piece."
