The following letter to the editor appeared in the VOX POP section of the London Free Press on May 11, 2005.

London Anti-Bullying Coalition responds to the recent announcement of the results of the “Environment of Safety in our Schools” survey.

On May 10th representatives from the LABC attended the TVDSB board meeting to learn the results of the Safe School Survey, which approximately 20,000 secondary school students participated in February.

The LABC is pleased with the amount of time, energy and talent that went into the creation of this survey and the analyzing of the data collected. We are also encouraged that the board now has a solid base line with which to measure the efficacy of current and future initiatives.

The results of the survey held no surprises as an Ad Hoc committee, headed by school trustee Peggy Sattler, in 2003 came back with a report that put forward many of the same concerns and recommendations. The plan for each school to look at their individual results, form a working group –consisting of parents, students, and staff – and form an action plan is an area of concern to us.

Most schools already have a Safe School Committee, a Healthy School Committee, a Home & School Committee, a Parent Association Committee, School Council and Student School Council. We feel there are enough committees and instead of adding one more committee to the list we think it is time to listen to our students and implement their solutions.

We appreciate the fact that there was a comment section in the survey where students were able to voice their concerns because they are the ones who are in a school environment daily. Our youth have stepped forward with the most practical, economical and common sense solutions for addressing the issue of bullying in our secondary schools.

• Students want to be taught realistic skills for dealing with bullying.
• Students want clearly defined and harsher consequences being consistently enforced to bullies.
• Students want a knowledgeable, confidential, designated and supportive person who they can report bullying incidents to.
• Students want teachers and administrators to take the reports of bullying incidents seriously, follow through with the reporting process that the TVDSB has already implemented, pay more attention to the student dynamics of their classrooms and learn the skills to effectively deal with bullying incidents and bullies.

We encourage our members to contact their child’s high school and volunteer to sit on one of the following recommended board committees:
• Survey Review Team
• Action Plan Development Team
• Safe School Implementation Steering Committee.

We were encouraged to learn that, although the survey report was presented to show results from all students in the TVDSB as a whole, the board also broke down the results from each school. This will reveal the level of concern students have regarding bullying in their school. These reports will be made available to parents and we encourage them to request a “report card” on their child’s school.

A survey is being formulated for elementary schools and will be administered in the early part of 2006. The majority of bullying complaints we have received is from parents of elementary aged students and we are looking forward to a “report card” on Phase II.

In recognizing that bullying requires a community solution we want to encourage adults to set the standards of behaviour and assist our schools in creating a safe and caring environment where all students can be successful in their learning.

“Many Voices - One Vision to Eliminate Bullying”
London Anti-Bullying Coalition
Kathryn Wilkins
Corina Morrison