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Students, parents move to change bully policy

School District 48 pressured to amend code of conduct

It took a broken hand, a concussion and a couple of questionable suspensions for students and parents in the Sea to Sky school district to demand that authorities take a hard look at their anti-bullying policies.

School District No. 48 (SD 48) is being officially asked to take a more aggressive stance against pupils that use violence and intimidation to bully their peers. High school students at Don Ross Secondary and Howe Sound Secondary in Squamish have signed a petition demanding that the district pull up its bootstraps by addressing pervasive bullying issues at elementary and secondary schools in the region.

The petition was started by Grade 10 student Keira Evans, who attends Don Ross Secondary. Though an online version of the petition was launched on Monday, Oct. 18 at http://www.thepetitionsite.com , the paper version circulating in classrooms collected 236 signatures at Don Ross Secondary and more than 50 at Howe Sound Secondary over the past week.

"I decided to start the petition because bullying is a big problem in the schools in Squamish and not enough is being done by the school board to prevent it," said 13-year-old Evans in an e-mail interview with Pique Newsmagazine. "It seems that bullying is not important to teachers or the school district. What is being done right now only promotes bullying by letting bullies know that they will get away with it and letting the victims know that if they defend themselves they will be punished more than the bullies."

The most recent and highly publicized bullying incident at Don Ross left 14-year-old Austin Aldridge in hospital with a broken hand and concussion after he was allegedly forced to fight another student. He received a three-day suspension for participating in the brawl, though his mother had alerted school authorities about plans for the fight a week prior to it taking place. The scrap, coupled with years of alleged verbal threats and physical violence dished out by the same group of hectors, put a number of parents, including Bianca Peters and Austin's mother, Zoe Aldridge, on the offensive.

The pair has been vocally advocating for stronger anti-bullying measures to be adopted by SD 48. They recently started circulating a petition of their own to gage support for a series of strengthening measures to the school district's code of conduct. Their goal is to ensure protection for students who are faced with threatening, physical and sexual assault both on and off school property. Included in the amendment is a rider that states any student over the age of 12 who threatens or physically assaults a peer will be immediately turned over to the police for investigation. They will present the petition, and their proposed amendments to the code at a SD 48 meeting on Nov. 10.

"It'll say that school teachers and administrators are educators, they are not law enforcement, so to take the onus and responsibility off the teachers it is our wish that the school board considers in situations of threatening, physical or sexual assault, that they be immediately turned over to the police for investigation and follow-up," said Peters, who is also advocating for a student help line to be established with RCMP school liaisons.

"What we'd like is for teachers to keep their ears and eyes open and if they know of anything that is going on to please, please, please let the police know, because that is their job."

Aldridge and Peters' other amendments to the code include a recommendation that teachers or administrators be suspended for knowingly not reporting an incident or blocking the collection of evidence in related cases. This last clause relates directly to Austin Aldridge's case in late September in which Don Ross Secondary vice principal Robyn Ross deleted cell phone video footage of a forced fight between Austin and another Grade 9 student. It was widely reported that Ross was trying to prevent the video from going viral on the Internet but Aldridge and Peters point out that by doing so she destroyed evidence needed to make a case against the other students involved.

Since that time one of the instigators of the fight has been arrested and faces an upcoming court appearance for charges related to another bullying situation at Don Ross Secondary.

Aldridge says school officials need to be firmer in regards to the bullying culture within the school to prevent it from escalating.

"I just went to a school board meeting and basically they said that a kid's actions can cause that kind of negative attention, so I wasn't too happy about that. Basically they are saying that if kids are hyper or act a certain way that's the retaliation," Aldridge said. "I just feel they are more concerned with the school's image than actually what is going on with all these kids. I don't understand why they are trying to make excuses for everything."

Dr. Rick Erickson, SD 48 Superintendent of Schools, says Peters and Aldridge are taking the appropriate steps needed to amend the district's code of conduct, which is typically reviewed once per year in the autumn. He said the guiding philosophy of school district authorities is to reduce harm and provide all students with a safe and supportive learning environment.

"What we need to do, as much as we can, is encourage people to advise us when there is a concern because it is part of the education process to try as soon as possible to address inappropriate behaviour and if we can do that at an early stage then often that saves everybody from anguish later on," he said.

"And these challenges are a part of everyday work in a school. There is not a day that goes by that we are not only teaching concepts of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but we are teaching social responsibility as well."

Erickson added that the presence of RCMP school liaison officers over the past three years has helped addresses certain behaviours that infringe upon the rights of others.