Schools Recognize Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week
Help us Stand up to Bullying
By Rob Faulkner, HWDSB
Assemblies, catchy slogans, colourful shirts and more erupted across HWDSB the week of Nov. 16-20 as schools recognized Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week.
It’s a time when students and staff work to transform relationships so that everyone in our district feels safe, welcome and accepted in our schools.
This year, HWDSB staff are helping schools build a positive climate through anonymous bullying reporting, digital citizenship, staff understanding of bullying and more.
Parents are important partners when it comes to preventing and reducing bullying in our schools. Their children may be bullied, may bully others, may be witnesses or completely uninvolved.
Every parent can help make schools better places to be. Often this starts with a conversation to that parents understand what is happening, and can decide what to do next.
To help, we would like to highlight a great resource one from the Canadian Safe School Network (CSSN). CSSN is a national, not-for-profit, registered charitable organization that works to reduce youth violence and make our schools and communities safer. The network grew out of Ontario’s Safe School Task Force in 1997 with representatives from policing, education and business communities.
The CSSN article My Child is being Bullied explains that if a parent is concerned that their child is repeatedly being threatened or injured by another child, it is important to get involved and act.
“Bullying rarely stops when victims are left to deal with it themselves,” the article states. “Bullying often happens while others watch, but unfortunately most bystanders, even adults, don’t intervene.”
Find the full article and questions to help you understand your child’s experience.
Updated on Monday, November 30, 2015.