Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I wish to talk about bullying as well. I want to highlight and celebrate the great work being done at Mildred Hall School. Mildred Hall has been working hard to develop anti-bullying policies and procedures because they believe strongly in early intervention. At Mildred Hall they recognize that bullying doesn’t just happen at school, it also happens outside on the school grounds and on Facebook, cyber world, on the streets and in our community. They also see that the fact is they have a role to play and to provide positive support.
They are taking many important steps and prevention measures. They proactively do outreach through educational sessions with their staff and their students. They teach kids to act. Even as bystanders, they need to report bullying to help stop and break the cycle to prevent future actions. They work hard to teach students that standing up for themselves and recognizing that self-esteem is an issue they need to be supported with. It’s not just the victim who needs self-esteem and support, the bully sometimes has self-esteem and support issues as well.
Mildred Hall works to support their students and to teach them to report their problems. They teach them that reporting a bullying incident is not being a tattle-tale or ratting out their good friend, it’s about taking real responsibility for actions that should stop.
Over a number of years at Mildred Hall, Wendy Wile should be credited for being the leader in the Peacemaker Program where she involves Grade 6, 7, and 8 students to help with their peers. They provide support for students on the playground during recess. They wear yellow vests so they can be identified. These Peacemaker students receive training. They even do presentations and skits in classrooms, because Mildred Hall recognizes peer-to-peer discussions are extremely effective.
Mildred Hall is working also with Aurora College through a partnership to identify some anti-bullying research and program class prevention, and I’d be remiss if I overlooked the fact that the community liaison officer Constable McGillivry provides great support. Mildred Hall recognizes that bullying is more than just being annoyed or bugged one day. They recognize that this is about people providing repetitive and unwanted behaviour and action. It goes on from there, but power, control and intimidation seem to always be one of the underlying issues. They work hard with their motto, which is: Responsible, Respectful, Safe.
In closing, I want to say that YK1 is working hard with its other partners such as YCS, and they view bullying as a community issue and that they are taking steps and a proactive approach, because they don’t want their students affected and they care very deeply.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
