Mr Chase argues Bill 206 will require funding for rehabilitation initiatives and teacher training on bullying identification and prevention

The following is copied from the October 26, 2009, printed transcripts of the Legislative debate and discussion. Click here to read Bill 206.

Mr. Chase (Calgary-Varsity Lib): Thank you very much.  I am very

pleased that the mover of Bill 206, the School (Enhanced Protection

of Students and Teachers) Amendment Act, 2009, brought it forward,

and I give credit where credit is due to the Member for Calgary-Fish

Creek for having thoughtfully brought this forward.

I want this to succeed for a variety of reasons, Mr. Speaker.  The

first is to honour the memory of a young high school student, Alex

Wedman, who is no longer with us because of bullying.  Alex

suffered bullying in junior high school.  He was so severely kicked

in the groin that he required several stitches to help to remediate the

problem.

The bullying he received in junior high school followed him to

high school.  When he graduated from grade 10, he tried to leave his

bully behind by switching high schools here in Edmonton.  Unfortu-

nately, on the first day of registration in his new high school to his

horror and to his family’s horror, the bully had shown up in the new

school to which he was transferred.  Attention was brought by

Alex’s mother and father to a variety of individuals within the school

system all along the course of the bullying.  Unfortunately, the

interventions were not sufficient, and Alex Wedman went into his

parents’ garage, turned on the vehicle, and as a result committed

suicide because he could no longer take the bullying that he had

received.

This is a very sad circumstance which this bill is attempting to

address.  This past fall we heard of children being hazed with hockey

sticks, some with nail studs, down in the southern portion of the

province.  There is a sort of male, foolish rule that suggests that you

keep it to yourself, you tough through it, that you go through

initiation processes, and that’s part of being a man.  Well, I suggest

that beating or being the recipient of a beating has nothing to do with

manhood.  It’s physical violence.  It should not be tolerated.

Now, in order for Bill 206 to have an effect, it needs to have

funding attached.  It needs to have education components attached.

The education components have to start at the earliest grades.

Kindergarten children, or if we ever have junior kindergarten in this

province, need to be given the opportunity to have the whole notion

of bullying discussed.  Teachers require in-service in order to

recognize the characteristics of bullying.  In the case of elementary

schools be on the lookout for it at recess.  In junior high schools be

on the lookout for it during classroom discussions.  Quite often the

bullying takes place in phys ed classes, where a shot is given or a

smack on the back is delivered.

We need teachers to be given the type of in-service training so that

they can recognize and react to bullying early on so that situations

that occurred to Alex Wedman do not occur to other students.  Far

too many children in this province have committed suicide because

they have been driven to it by relentless bullying.  It’s extremely

important in the universities as part of curriculum instruction that

would-be teachers going through their masters in teaching program

receive education on identifying bullying.

Teachers are busy individuals.  They do their best, but in order to

prevent needless injury and death, our best must get even better.

We’re frequently the first line of prevention in bullying.  If a child

comes to us or the parent of a child comes to us as teachers and tells

us about the bullying, whether it’s cyberbullying, which seems to be

primarily the area that female students prefer, or whether it’s knock-

down physical abuse or name-calling, bullying has to be addressed,

and funding for those programs must be in place in order to ensure

that the bullying is ended.  With the teachers who are currently

teaching, as I say, we need in-service.  In-service costs dollars.

A message that I’ve tried to put out through Children and Youth

Services, that I put out last month at the Alberta Association of

Services for Children and Families, is a simple message.  It says:

Safe Kids Save Dollars.  If Bill 206 is going to have the effect that

the hon. Member for Calgary-Fish Creek has intended, then there

have to be dollars following the bill.  There have to be the educa-

tional components provided in order for bullying to end.

Right now schools have very few options.  Quite often simply

expelling the bully provides a holiday and a type of recognition for

the bullying, but the bullying continues.  Suspension isn’t the answer

either for the child being bullied or for the bullying.  It just transfers

the program.  We need in-school efforts and support in a sustainable

fashion if we are going to end bullying.

I compliment the Member for Calgary-Fish Creek.  Through her

communities and crime task force she travelled the province, and she

heard from a variety of individuals, including myself at the Univer-

sity of Calgary and at another forum based in Calgary, about the

need for funding for community resource officers.  Those are police

officers who spend time working with children in the schools.

Currently, if a high school is sufficiently lucky, they’ll have a

resource officer attached to them.  That support does not extend

down to junior high schools on a regular basis, and it’s extremely

infrequent for school-based resource officers to be operating in

elementary grades in elementary schools, where bullying often has

begun.

In my own life I have been bullied.  As a junior high school

student in grade 8 in Richmond Hill, Ontario, I was the new kid on

the block.  My father was in the air force.  We moved frequently, but

I had never faced bullying before.  I know what it feels like to be

kicked and pounded and harassed and chased home.  I don’t want

that to happen to any other Alberta children or any other children in

this world for that matter.  It had a profound effect on myself in

terms of having to overcome the fears associated.  Fortunately,

between my parents and a teacher who was very concerned, I was

taken under the individual’s wing, and the bullying at least was

reduced.  It didn’t end, but it was reduced, and I thank that teacher

and my parents for having gone through that process.

As a teacher I vowed that there would never be bullying in my

classrooms or, if I could prevent it, in the schools that I attended.  I

would hope that through Bill 206, School (Enhanced Protection of

Students and Teachers) Amendment Act, 2009, the provision will be

made to fund the necessary education programs for students, for

teachers, and for parents that will make this bill a success.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.  Thank you, mover of the bill. (1548 – 1549)