After the excitement of Pink Week died down, the board of the Living Sky School Division discussed bullying from an administrative perspective
Brian Quinn, the superintendent of School Operations/Cirriculum and Instruction, presented a document describing the school division's "behaviour programs," more broadly known as anti-bullying programs. Though there is no single program division-wide, a total of 17 schools have a policy or procedure established for dealing with bullying and a total of 18 had a definition of bullying, out of 31 schools in the division. Fifteen schools, furthermore, employ Tell-Them-From-Me software, which allow schools to collect data on bullying anonymously.
The Tell-Them-From-Me survey results presented to the board showed the number of students who are victims of bullying from Grade 5 to 12 is close to the national average of 24 per cent. The percentage of students who feel safe at school is also close to the national average of 86 per cent.
After describing a number of initiatives different schools had undertaken, Quinn summarized the findings by explaining the school division is making significant efforts towards eradicating an all-but intractable problem.
"To say schools take this seriously is an understatement, but the data show that it is a persistent issue and it is going to be so for a period of time."
Quinn also briefly discussed the Treaty Six Education Project, praising it for its focus and approach. The program has been designed to be targeted towards specific cirricula at specific grade levels - fitting treaty education lessons into specific lesson plans rather than designing them as their own units. The approach has been, broadly, more "artistic" than "political," an approach that Quinn described as "[building] bridges and [building] understanding." Quinn thanked Sherron Burns for her help in creating the Treaty Six Education Project.
"She's been an ambassador for this work as well as a learning consultant. I really have to commend her. I'm looking down the list and everything has had her stamp on it at some point."
