Three anonymous complaints of bullying have been made to School District 43 since the province launched its ERASE online reporting tool two months ago, including one about possible cyberbullying on Facebook.
All were investigated with results sent to ERASE authorities, according to Julie Pearce, SD43′s assistant superintendent and safe school co-ordinator, and while she can’t reveal details because of privacy regulations, she noted two were made by parents and one was made by a student.
Pearce said the complaints, all made in December, were handled promptly and appropriately by the schools in much the same way they would have been if reported directly to the school. But she said she believes the anonymity of the reporting tool on the ERASE (Expect Respect, and a Safe Education) website made it easier for the individuals to make their complaints.
“It’s a place where people can feel comfortable,” Pearce said, noting as well that ERASE will be providing three days of training to SD43 staff in mid-February. Topics will include threat assessment as well as bullying, and will be for administrators and counsellors.
ERASE was launched in November by the province to encourage students to report bullying online or using a smartphone. Carol Todd, whose daughter Amanda committed suicide in October after years of online and face-to-face bullying, is giving cautious approval to the online web tool and said she hopes more people will continue to pay attention to the issue.
“IT’S WRONG”
“I only hope that it continues to grow and that kids and parents will continue to report on bullying and cyberbullying,” Todd said. “That’s the only way that we can begin to get the message through that it’s wrong.”
The problem is far from over, though, and she said, “I still hear of kids bullying other kids and they are just sucking it up.”
Todd said she would also like to see more resources made available for parents so they are alerted to instances of bullying around them, including harassment of their own children.
Resources for parents and students are available on the ERASE bullying website (www.erasebullying.ca), which also includes a reporting function that alerts a safe school coordinator within 72 hours of a complaint. If no response is filed with ERASE, a school district superintendent is notified. The complaint can go as far as the Minister of Education if it is not dealt with at the district level.
Tri-City News - ERASE bullying nets three complaints
“ERASE was launched in November by the province to encourage students to report bullying online or using a smartphone.” Where’s the app? I searched and couldn’t find it. Was it ERASED?
Clancy B – the Province decided not to create an app for fear that the bullied person would be revealing he/she is being bullied by having the app on their phone. Instead, the Province put into place the online reporting tool.
They originally announced a smartphone app would be made available and was clearly a requirement included in their very detail RFP. So in 2 months they received a whopping 3 reports in a student population of approximately 30,000 students attending 67 schools (re: their website). It seems that BC kids are still to be seen and not heard.
While I fully support pink shirt day and all it represents and I would love to see its message spread clearly and to all…your recent ad has dreadfully missed the mark. An ad that makes you DIVE for the mute button is absolutely, totally ineffective.
Anika – thanks for your comment. Our ad is certainly creating conversations all across Canada! While not everyone’s taste, the ad has been well received for having a clear message, unique take on getting involved, attention grabbing and “multilingual” as there are very few words.
We are always open to suggestions for next year’s ad!
I leave a comment whenever I like a article on a site or
I actually do have 2 questions for you if it’s
And, if you are writing at additional sites,
if I have something to valuable to contribute to the conversation.
Usually it’s caused by the passion communicated in the post I read. And on this post ERASE bullying nets three complaints | PinkShirtDay.ca. I was actually moved enough to drop a thought
allright. Is it only me or do a few of the responses come across
like written by brain dead folks?
I’d like to follow you. Would you list every one of all your public pages like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?