Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

INUVIK
A small number of people turned out for a public consultation session on the GNWT's proposed anti-bullying legislation Oct. 2 at Ingamo Hall.

Inuvik MLA Alfred Moses chairs a public meeting Oct. 2 at Ingamo Hall dealing with the GNWT's proposed anti-bullying legislation. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photo

A panel led by Inuvik MLA Alfred Moses discussed the bill, which would define bullying and provide disciplinary options to schools. Bill 12 would embed the changes into the Education Act.

Prominent among those changes, Moses said, is the implementation of an official definition of bullying, a student code of conduct, a suspension period of up to 20 days for violations, and the development of a "safe schools" plan throughout the NWT.

Several people in the audience expressed a number of concerns with the plan while generally supporting the notion of tackling bullying. Most acknowledged bullying is a difficult issue to handle.

"If it was easy to solve, we wouldn't be talking about it right now," said one spectator.

Teachers in the area were well represented, with East Three English teacher Angela Young being an unofficial spokesperson for the teacher's association.

She questioned the 20-day suspension period, along with expressing concerns about increasing the workload and responsibilities of teaching staff. She also questioned the changes being made under the Education Act itself rather than as general legislation.

Moses said the Education Act is being used by the GNWT because it is the fastest way of making the changes.

It's still likely the changes will be at least a year away, if the bill is passed, added panel member and Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro of Yellowknife.

Young said it would be necessary to develop an appropriate structure to guide teachers if the bill is approved, so they didn't have to "invent" it themselves.

She also questioned, as did local teacher Chris Gilmour, what the responsibility of teaching staff would be to handle incidents that occur outside of school hours and off-site, which is frequently the case with cyber-bullying.

As well, she said a 20-day suspension clause in the proposed bill poses problems. Attendance is already a huge headache for schools in the NWT, she said. A 20-day out-of-class suspension would likely cause students to fall behind to an extent they'd never catch up again.

In-school suspensions, where the student would be separated from the main student body, also poses problems. Young said it would be difficult to find any staff willing to supervise students serving such a suspension.

"Good luck with that," she said.

Mary Ann Ross also agreed a 20-day suspension is excessive.

"I just don't agree with that," she said. "It's too long."

Panel member Daryl Dolynny, the MLA for Range Lake in Yellowknife, asked what measures are being taken in Inuvik to address bullying in the schools. He also asked whether the issue should be addressed under the Education Act.

"Bullying is a very personal thing and hard to talk about," he said, adding he had been bullied as a child. "There's a huge fear element (in talking about it openly)."

Young drew up a quick list of various programs available at East Three, including Pink Shirt Day, the Not Us campaign and the Lights-On program that runs on Saturday nights.

Ruth Wright, who said she often volunteers at East Three, said bullying is a considerable problem in town.

She said her observation is that in general, "girls are worse than boys, and they're more vicious" up to around the age of 12.

She's also participates in "talking circles" for those girls, with some success.

"They thought they had the right to bully others," she said.

However, she warned against the impulse to label students as bullies, which can happen as early as kindergarten. Oftentimes, that label never changes, despite improvement in the child's behaviour.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.