To combat bullying, harassment and other threats to students and staff in B.C. schools, the Ministry of Education is prepared to hire a consultant to provide extensive face-to-face training of staff at individual school districts to deal with those issues.
The job also entails developing anti-bullying Web content and working out a plan that could be applied to all districts to provide team support in the event of serious incidents.
The request for proposal was issued Thursday in response to the government's 2011 throne speech commitment to provide safer schools.
The anti-bullying training program will provide parents and school staff resources that will help them recognize the signs of bullying and advice they can offer children or students who are concerned about being bullied.
Training content with the school and district teams will focus how to create positive school environments. Teachers will be trained in risk assessment and how to deal with threats and the program will show them how to apply that knowledge while working with community teams to address serious incidents and prevent bullying.
The bullying program will be open to all elementary and secondary schools in the public system.
