HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-11-22, Page 15THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2012. PAGE 15.
When Avon Maitland District
School Board (AMDSB) trustees
were presented with the results of a
school climate survey conducted
earlier this year they wanted some
questions answered.
In March 2012, the board surveyed
all Grade 6-12 - the third such survey
completed by the AMDSB since
2006 - as part of its bullying
prevention initiatives.
The 2012 survey found that just
over 80 per cent of students feel safe
at school at all times, while the
remaining almost 20 per cent did not
indicate that they did not feel safe
anytime, but the commentssuggested that they may haveexperienced one time or a situation
where they did not feel safe.
The report also stated that 75 per
cent of students report feeling
welcome at school at all times. The
remaining 25 per cent do not always
feel welcome based on one or more
experiences. Reported reasons for
feeling unwelcome related to a
student’s grades or marks and/or
their appearance. Students also list
these same reasons as barriers to
learning and reasons they feel school
rules are not applied fairly. Social
and verbal bullying are the most
common types reported by students.
These are also the most difficult for
staff to monitor. Homophobicharassment is the most frequent typeof bullying reported. The survey also
showed that students are more
concerned when they see someone
else being bullied than they reported
in 2010. It was speculated that the
shift may be a result of the character
development initiatives across the
district.
But these results left trustees
wondering if there were significant
gender differences in the results.
Superintendent Mike Ash said for
the most part the gender differences
were not significant but there were
some areas that gender differences
did come to light.
“There was definitely a difference
in responses by gender for feelingunwelcome at school. Our femalestudents were more likely to feel
unwelcome due to their grades, their
appearance and their income. We
would hazard a conclusion that this
is a societal problem, bigger than
what goes on here at our school, but
that doesn’t abrogate us of a
responsibility of trying to mitigate
it,” said Ash. “The other difference
that popped out was that males are
more likely to report bullying to
parents, guardians or other students.
That is a bit of a surprise but when
you look at how males and females
in our schools deal with those sort of
conflicts, guys tend to get over it
faster than girls.”
“It is because girls try to solve theproblem by dealing directly with theother girls rather than involving
other people. Guys tend to talk about
it, deal with it and move on.”
Ash said knowing these
differences will help school plan in
terms of intervention, for example
getting girls to talk with the right
people about the issues they are
dealing with. This can come in the
form of peer mentors or other
students who are in a position to
help.
Trustees had also questioned the
religious accommodation request
part of the survey. Ash said everyone
was surprised to see that some
Bullying still a factor in local schools: survey
519-523-9381 blythinn@bellnet.ca
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By Hilary LongSpecial to The Citizen
Continued on page 26