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EXETER JR.`D'
HAWKS
vs WEST LORNE
FRI. FEB. 4 8:30 P.m.
South Huron Rec Centre
SCHOOL NIGHT: Exeter PS
TIMES -ADVOCATE
Exeter, Ontario, Canada
Wednesday,February 2, 2005
1.25 (includes GST)
Exeter Public School raised over $700 for the Asian tsunami relief fund with
two fundraisers last Friday.Vice-principal Mike Stanley found himself duct
taped to the gym wall in the afternoon, as students raised $463 to tape him
up with 231.5 metres of duct tape, donated by 3M Canada. Sisters Alyssa, left,
and Mikayla Keller came up with the idea. Earlier in the day, teacher Krista
Gingerich's Grade 4 class held a bake sale, raising $250 for the relief fund.
(photo/Scott Nixon)
Forum deals with
bullying problem
By Scott Nixon
TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF
EXETER — Bullying is a hot topic at
many schools these days and South
Huron District High School is no excep-
tion.
In conjunction with its School Council,
South Huron held a community forum
on bullying Jan. 27 with several guest
speakers.
Principal Jeff Reaburn said bullying is
a complex issue and the school wants to
hear from parents on the subject.
School Council chairperson Karen
Brown spoke on the prevalence of bully-
ing in schools, referring to surveys done
at Exeter Public School (EPS)
over a five-year period. In
2000-2001, 22.6 per cent of
students between grades 4-8
said bullying was a problem
for them. Four years later,
with most of those students at
South Huron, 43 per cent say
bully behaviour is a concern
at SHDHS. In 2003-2004 at
EPS, 40.3 per cent of students
surveyed said they had been bullied dur-
ing the school year, while 16.8 per cent
said they have been a bully.
Some other findings from the surveys,
as Brown read:
• boys almost always get bullied by
boys, but girls get bullied by both boys
and girls;
• grades 4 and 5 have the most stu-
dents being bullied; Grade 6 has the
least;
• younger grades tend to be bullied
alone, while senior grades tend towards
group bullying;
• the playground is the most popular
place for bullying;
• verbal bullying is generally the most
common form;
• boys tend to be physically bullied
more than girls, with girls suffering
from verbal and "relational" bullying;
• as students get older, they are less
likely to tell someone they are being bul-
lied.
"If you could read the comments, your
heart would break," Brown said of the
surveys.
Reaburn said one of South Huron's
biggest problems dealing with bullying is
that students don't tell teachers they are
being bullied. He said staff sometimes
have "a gut feeling" when it's happen-
ing, but it's difficult to deal with when
they don't know who's doing the bully-
ing.
One of the ways the school is dealing
with bullying is through a program that
saw eight of its Peer Mentors take a two-
day seminar on bullying called "Beyond
the Hurt." As students Stacey Pfaff and
Emma Puchniak reported at the meeting
last week, the seminar opened the eyes
of the students involved and taught them
the seriousness of the problem.
Those students who
attended the program are
in turn training other Peer
Mentors and the students
will talk to Grade 9 students
and SHDHS's feeder
schools.
"We have to do something
about this," Pfaff said, not-
ing before the seminar she
didn't think the school had
a big bullying problem. As Puchniak
said, bullying comes in different forms
— physical, verbal, exclusion, gossiping
and threatening MSN messages.
Pfaff said the bystanders are the ones
with the power, not the bullies and the
seminar taught students ways to inter-
vene.
"It's been very beneficial to our
school," she said.
Puchniak said bullying has been dis-
missed as "normal" for too long and
every person has a right to be treated
with respect and a responsibility to treat
others that way.
Reaburn said schools are probably the
one institution in society taking the bul-
lying problem seriously. He said bullying
continues after school and off school
property and "everybody has to take this
on."
Huron County community development
co-ordinator Bonnie Baynham spoke of
a study on bullying she's been working
on with several groups in the county,
which included focus groups with young
See BULLYING page 2
"If you could read
the comments,
your heart would
break."
KAREN BROWN
SHDHS SCHOOL
COUNCIL CHAIRPERSON
Kirkton hosts Swine Research meeting
By Scott Nixon
TIMES -ADVOCATE STAFF
KIRKTON — The 24th Annual Centralia Swine
Research Update hosted a packed house at the
Kirkton-Woodham Community Centre Jan. 26.
About 170 people attended the event, which saw a
wide variety of agricultural experts speak on various
issues affecting the pork industry.
E. coli, genetics, salmonella, influenza, feeding and
slaughtering were just a few of the many topics cov-
ered.
Dr. Carlton Gyles of the University of Guelph, has
studied E. coli since 1964. He described E. coli as a
major problem with swine. While most types of E. coli
are harmless, a small number cause disease in
humans and animals. He spoke of the impact E. coli
has on pigs and the different studies undertaken at
Guelph.
Dr. Andy Robinson, also of the University of Guelph,
spoke on swine breeding, referring to pigs as a "black
box" — the pig is given input in the form of feeding
and it gives output in the form of meat and piglets. He
talked of his attempts to "open the box" and under-
stand the genes involved in converting the inputs to
outputs.
"This is a big challenge," he said, showing slides of
different types of pig DNA.
DNA information can be used to help determine
which types of pig have higher ovulation rates,
Robinson explained, but traditional methods should
also continue to be used.
As the world becomes more informed about the envi-
ronment, the effect of the farm industry on air quality
was also discussed. The University of Guelph's Dr. Bill
Van Heyst spoke about on-farm deadstock cremation
and its environmental implications. He said "a magni-
fying glass" has been put on the agricultural world in
terms of air quality.
As Van Heyst stated in his report, "Under the current
regulation in Ontario, cremation is not a recognized
See SWINE RESEARCH page 2