New Dates Set for Safe Schools: Bullying Prevention and Intervention Review Panel
Hamilton, Ontario – September 9, 2020: The remaining Safe Schools: Bullying Prevention and Intervention Review Panel community sessions are confirmed to take place virtually.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on March 12, 2020, the Safe Schools: Bullying Prevention and Intervention Review Panel made the decision to postpone the remaining two community sessions, Racialized Community and General Waterdown Community.
“We remain committed to providing feedback and recommendations on how to prevent, intervene, respond to and report bullying thanks to the valuable input provided by participants across our community,” said Safe Schools Review panellist Jean Clinton. “The panel and HWDSB aim to build collaborative solutions that further contribute to safe learning environments, equity and social justice for all HWDSB students.”
The remaining community sessions are confirmed to take place virtually through Zoom as follows:
- General Session – Waterdown Community: Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.
- Racialized Community Session: Tuesday, September 29, 2020 at 6:00 p.m.
Members of the community can now register for the sessions through Eventbrite at bit.ly/safeschoolsreview. Registration will close 48 hours prior to the start of the sessions and 100 registrants will be allowed in each session.
The day before the virtual sessions, a secure Zoom link will be sent to all registrants by email from the Safe Schools Review Panel. Smaller breakout Zoom rooms will be used for the second half of the sessions. In the breakout rooms, facilitators will write down what the community members in attendance want HWDSB to stop, start and continue as it relates to bullying.
Media personnel who wish to be a part of the sessions are asked to please contact Shawn McKillop, Manager of Communications and Community Engagement at HWDSB and not to register through the Eventbrite. When joining the sessions, media personnel are asked to not record or take photographs of any part of the sessions.
To ensure the Review Panel accurately documents contributions to conversations, sessions will be recorded for the purposes of reviewing later and creating detailed notes. Once note-taking is complete, recordings will be destroyed and will not be used for any other purpose. Participants will also not be identified in the notes.
Information around key themes identified in previous community sessions, in the four focus areas of, bullying prevention, intervention, reporting, and responding, is available in the Safe Schools: Bullying Prevention and Intervention Review Panel interim report, which was presented to the Board on May 25, 2020.
Key themes and the lived experiences and stories told during the remaining sessions will help to inform the specific recommendations and feedback from the panel members in the final report. Online surveys for students, parents and staff, as well as staff and student sessions will take place this fall and outcomes from these will also be included.
The final report will be submitted to the Director of Education and shared with the Board of Trustees no later than December 16, 2020.
Learn more and find details about the sessions at www.hwdsb.on.ca/safeschoolsreview.
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Media Contact:
Shawn McKillop, APR
Manager, Communications and Community Engagement, HWDSB
T: 905.527.5092 x2941, C: 905.515.6227, [email protected]
Updated on Wednesday, September 09, 2020.