The Bully Bylaw
Five teens in the Alberta town of Rocky Mountain House have been charged with inciting bullying in what is believed to be the first time such a charge has been laid in Canada. The little dears who were charged -- four boys and one girl, all in their early teens -- will either pay a one-hundred dollar fine or have to attend a workshop on the effects of bullying with their parents.
A note before you read further ... The use of the word "criminal" is not just an idle choice on my part. There are statistics that show bullying can lead to criminal activity. Constable Williams, mentioned later in this entry, says "Kids don't grow out of it, they grow into criminals,".
If you've been a visitor here before, you may have seen previous entries about the up-and-coming criminals at the school I left last year.The ringleaders have been suspended so many times, it's all become just a joke to them. These kids threatened me with physical harm last year, but were not suspended for that. When I went back for a visit a month ago, there they were, out in the hall, waiting for their latest set of suspension papers. A staff member tells me that they came back from that suspension just long enough to "beat up a kid" before they were suspended again. These kids bring a whole nasty new meaning to the term "bully" and I know from my years in the classroom that they're not the only ones like that. Neither is that school the only one so lax in handling the problem. I have, for instance, witnessed this principal actually talking in a conciliatory manner to the parents of bullies he has been forced to suspend, when his best efforts to brush the problem under the carpet didn't work. He told them not to worry, that he would remove documentation of the suspension from their Scholastic Record before they went to high school. I have never seen him bend so far over backwards for the victims or their families.
Bullying behaviour is a problem of huge proportions, and has been the cause of more than one suicide. Surely, even one should be regarded as one too many. The problem should be more than enough to galvanize school staffs into action. It was certainly more than enough for Constable Williams. "Up to 70 per cent of the complaints in our schools are bullying-related," said the officer. Constable Dan Williams, a school resource officer at St. Joseph Catholic High School in Edmonton, proposed the bylaw idea to Edmonton police, who approached civic politicians, with the backing of both separate and public school boards, to add harassment to the list of offences already covered by the city's public places bylaw.
Does Toronto have such a bylaw as Edmonton does? Bigger question still - how many principals would be willing to take matters in hand the way the Alberta principal did? He obviously alerted the RCMP. The principal involved with these kids I'm talking about would rather shoot himself in the foot than have a cruiser parked outside his school. After all, that would tell the community that he doesn't run the nicey-nicey school he wants everyone to think he does. I applaud the Alberta principal and his handling of this situation. I applaud those who brought that bylaw into being. Now I have just one question to ask. In much the same way as those Alberta juveniles could be forced to attend a workshop on the effects of bullying, could the morons in management here be forced to attend talks given by that principal from Rocky Mountain House? Please?
A note before you read further ... The use of the word "criminal" is not just an idle choice on my part. There are statistics that show bullying can lead to criminal activity. Constable Williams, mentioned later in this entry, says "Kids don't grow out of it, they grow into criminals,".
If you've been a visitor here before, you may have seen previous entries about the up-and-coming criminals at the school I left last year.The ringleaders have been suspended so many times, it's all become just a joke to them. These kids threatened me with physical harm last year, but were not suspended for that. When I went back for a visit a month ago, there they were, out in the hall, waiting for their latest set of suspension papers. A staff member tells me that they came back from that suspension just long enough to "beat up a kid" before they were suspended again. These kids bring a whole nasty new meaning to the term "bully" and I know from my years in the classroom that they're not the only ones like that. Neither is that school the only one so lax in handling the problem. I have, for instance, witnessed this principal actually talking in a conciliatory manner to the parents of bullies he has been forced to suspend, when his best efforts to brush the problem under the carpet didn't work. He told them not to worry, that he would remove documentation of the suspension from their Scholastic Record before they went to high school. I have never seen him bend so far over backwards for the victims or their families.
Bullying behaviour is a problem of huge proportions, and has been the cause of more than one suicide. Surely, even one should be regarded as one too many. The problem should be more than enough to galvanize school staffs into action. It was certainly more than enough for Constable Williams. "Up to 70 per cent of the complaints in our schools are bullying-related," said the officer. Constable Dan Williams, a school resource officer at St. Joseph Catholic High School in Edmonton, proposed the bylaw idea to Edmonton police, who approached civic politicians, with the backing of both separate and public school boards, to add harassment to the list of offences already covered by the city's public places bylaw.
Does Toronto have such a bylaw as Edmonton does? Bigger question still - how many principals would be willing to take matters in hand the way the Alberta principal did? He obviously alerted the RCMP. The principal involved with these kids I'm talking about would rather shoot himself in the foot than have a cruiser parked outside his school. After all, that would tell the community that he doesn't run the nicey-nicey school he wants everyone to think he does. I applaud the Alberta principal and his handling of this situation. I applaud those who brought that bylaw into being. Now I have just one question to ask. In much the same way as those Alberta juveniles could be forced to attend a workshop on the effects of bullying, could the morons in management here be forced to attend talks given by that principal from Rocky Mountain House? Please?
2 Comments:
Bullies can go in a few directions -- they can smarten up -- but that takes quite the bit of effort from the adults in their lives and the authority figures. Just the same way that bullies need to acknowledge that they are doing something wrong, authority figures, like your previous principal, need to acknowledge that bullying is wrong. I don't think he does. The other direction bullies can take is towards becoming hardened criminals. Let's hope they meet a swift and merciless end. The ones who don't go either way, I see them on a daily basis. They're either begging on the street. working at McDonalds or calling me sir.
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