Province announces online bullying reporting system
Posted Aug 16, 2013 10:13:34 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The province has announced more initiatives to help students and parents deal with bullying.
Speaking at the Speak Up! Anti-bullying Leadership Conference underway at Mount Saint Vincent University, Education Minister Ramona Jennex said starting in late September, students will be able to anonymously report bullying via an online reporting system.
Kids will be encouraged to report incidents whether they’re the victim or a witness to an incident.
“We know that some people don’t report bullying because they worry that it will make the situation worse,” said Jennex. “We hope that this tool will encourage more students who are being bullied, or who witness bullying behaviour to report it.”
Jennex said the new online form will be available through links that will appear on all school board websites and the province’s anti-bullying website.
“Our students need to know that we encourage reporting and all reports, and I’m going to repeat that, all reports will be taken seriously. We can only deal with bullying and cyber-bullying in our schools if we know what is happening.”
Jennex also announced an online resource package to help parents educate themselves on the issue, including a booklet to help prevent against and deal with sexual abuse.
The booklet includes information on sexual violence, healthy relationships, getting help, the law and the court process.
The booklet can be found online here: http://women.gov.ns.ca/sexual-assault-and-sexual-violence.html
Young and old come to learn at the conference
The conference boasts plenty of workshops demonstrating how to deal with a bully, including protection on social media, hyper-sexualization of kids and more.
Gérard Cormier is showing teachers how to make the classroom safer.
“Not physical safety, but safety as a human being,” said Cormier. “I look at fifteen characteristics of humans, such as race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Teachers need to have inclusive resources, watch their words, and their actions. For example, teachers need to call students on abusive language instead of letting it slide.”
13-year-old Allison Fudge was bullied in grade six. She dealt with the bully by being kind to her.
“I tried to apologize and say if I did anything to you I’m sorry,” explained Fudge. “I actually befriended her.”
But it wasn’t easy.
“It was very scary,” said her mom, Leanne Myles. “It was three weeks of her in her room not socializing or hanging around her friends.”
The mother and daughter team were just a few of the many families who showed up to the conference to take knowledge back home for September.
Jean MacAdam is a restorative justice case worker attending the conference. She told News 95.7 bullying on social media and cell phones can be difficult to control, but laws are catching up.
“It’s moving in the right direction,” said MacAdam. “They’re steadily making changes and realized that we need to catch up with the technology. We’re seeing changes daily.”
The two-day conference runs until Saturday.
