Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Evidence suggests that suspending a bully is not effective because it basically rewards the bully with a vacation from school.
I’d like to ask the Minister, what progress has the department made towards a tiered approached to discipline in the schools with suspensions as a last resort?
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The bullying has been the highlight of the day today and throughout all schools across the Northwest Territories it’s a special day for us. We talk about the suspension for those bullies that are bullying the students, and we’ve been dealing with the school boards on how we can develop a plan of action. There is a draft Safe Schools Plan by this department in early June of 2014, working in collaboration with all the school boards to deal with those matters that Member Groenewegen is alluding to, where if there’s going to be a suspension it’s considered as a vacation. We heard that from the students. We want to take those seriously into consideration, so those are the discussions we’re going to have, and we’re going to develop a plan of action in 2014 that’s coming this summer.
I’d like to thank the Minister for that. Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment describe his department’s efforts to address bullying through collaboration with any other departments such as Municipal and Community Affairs or the Department of Health and Social Services? Could the Minister describe if there are any of those kinds of collaborations taking place?
I’m glad the Member is asking that specific question. Yes, indeed, it is a collaborative effort. It’s not just the Education department. As Member Bisaro also alluded to, we’re in a workforce environment, so it does cover all spectrum of activity that is happening in the schools, outside the schools, so working in collaboration with MACA, Health and Social Services, the Justice department and other departments are getting involved. It is one of our priorities, as well, to prevent bullying from happening in the school environment, in the work environment and in other places within the Northwest Territories. It is a collaborative effort.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Colleagues, before we go on today, I’d like to recognize today in the House that it’s Mr. Blake’s birthday today. I’d also like to wish Mr. Bromley’s mother a happy birthday. It’s her 88th birthday.
---Applause
Happy birthday, and hopefully you’ll have cake today, son.
The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
