 | Home page |  | Text size |  | E-mail this page |
Students will help form new law Proposed bullying legislation will include feedback from schools
Chris Puglia
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 30, 2013
LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS
High school students at Mackenzie Mountain School in Norman Wells were given the opportunity to provide input for the territory's proposed anti-bullying legislation last week.
MLAs met with the students on Sept. 26 to seeking input on Bill 12: an act to amend the Education Act. In essence, the amendment would create an anti-bullying law in the NWT.
Alfred Moses, chair of the standing committee on social programs, said this is the first time the government has gone into schools to give young people an opportunity to assist with the creation of a new law.
The first school meeting was held in Yellowknife on Sept. 25 and MLAs will also travel to Inuvik on Oct. 2.
While it can be intimidating for youth to speak to territorial leaders about personal matters such as bullying, Moses and colleagues Range Lake MLA Daryl Dolynny, Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro and Sahtu MLA Norman Yakeleya encouraged interaction with the 17 students who attended the meeting.
They kicked things off by asking students how many of them had been bullied or had seen bullying. In both cases, nearly all of the students raised their hands.
Substantially fewer - less than half - raised their hands when asked if they had reported bullying. One said that reporting the problem made a difference while others said there was a fear that speaking out could make the situation worse.
Most of the students, however, said physical bullying wasn't a huge problem at Mackenzie Mountain School because of the small population of the school, but said cyberbullying is more of an issue.
The goal of the consultation was to generate an understanding for legislators about how much of a problem bullying is in the territory's schools and hear what students believe would be the best way to deter and punish bullies.
While MLAs asked about whether methods such as suspensions and criminal records would be effective deterrents, students had less punitive ideas. Some went so far as to say suspensions do not work.
A common theme was to provide counselling and possibly community service in an approach that would focus more on healing and reparation.
"I don't think suspension is the best thing because it's a little bit of a free holiday. If I was a bully and I had to do community service and I was counselled, I think I would certainly think twice next time," said Grade 10 student Emily Hodgson.
Concern was also expressed by students about how the law would be applied and if measures would weed out false accusations. Students also agreed that punishments should not be one-size fits all, suggesting a tiered approach similar to their school's anti-bullying program which hands down more severe punishment to repeat offenders.
Tyler Bennett, a Grade 10 student, went further by saying punishment under the law should be reserved for severe cases.
"If someone's getting punished for minor offences and keeps getting punished, they could lash out with physical violence. So only use punishment for stuff that is actually bullying," he said.
Hodgson agreed and said her hope is the bill will clearly define what bullying is.
Principal Mike Duclos is on board with the legislation which MLAs said will be left to the schools and districts to apply.
"It's not something we're not already doing anyways. At least if we have a more clearly defined way of doing this it makes things easier on us," he said. "It's definitely a good idea. I think it's time for the Northwest Territories to move more towards looking at bullying with serious eyes and starts taking it serious ... especially with cyberbullying."
Students and the public are encouraged to submit written statements to the committee prior to the bill going to third reading in the next session.
Yakeleya commended the students of Norman Wells, saying he knows many are from good families and are good citizens. He also encouraged them to get involved and help craft the new bill following Dolynny's statement saying this might be one of the most important things the students do in their high school careers.
"It's good work and it's hard work to learn how to live with one another," Yakeleya said to conclude the meeting.
| 
