Child and Youth Studies

CHYS 3P24
Dr. J. McNamara
March 16, 2017

Building Safe Schools

Background – Safe Schools Action Team (SSAT)

 In December 2004, the government appointed a Safe Schools Action Team
 The Safe Schools Action Team has been given three mandates over the course of five
years:
– to advise on the development of a comprehensive, coordinated approach to bullying
prevention in Ontario schools (2004);
– to review the safe schools provisions of the Education Act, as well as its regulations,
and related policies and practices (2005); and
– to review issues of gender-based violence, homophobia; sexual harassment;
inappropriate sexual behaviour of students towards other students and barriers to
reporting in Ontario Schools (2008).
- Need to start paying attention to safe schools because the stats come from us and the students as
well and trickles up to the ministry and they realize they need to change these policies to make
sure that these instances don’t cause the problems that they have
- Works on safe schools and a safe environment

Provincial Movements
 In 2005, the provincial government made an announcement regarding mandatory anti-
bullying programs in every Ontario School.

 The Ontario government has outlined a three-year, $23-million initiative.

– Each school will receive as much as $2,000 for staff training and resources to create
an approved bullying-prevention program.
– All Ontario schools will also be required to create safe-school teams and
anonymous reporting mechanisms, such as drop boxes and peer group
interventions.
- They give them the money but does not set up the programs that they are to use. Every school
should have an anti-bullying standpoint- enough money for staff training

 Based on the recommendations of the December 2008 SSAT report, the government;
– passed Bill 157 (Keeping Our Kids Safe At School Act) which came into force on
February 1, 2010;
– made changes to Ontario Regulation 472/07, Behaviour, Discipline and Safety of
Pupils; and
– revised and reissued Policy /Program Memorandum 144: Bullying Prevention and
Intervention and Policy/Program Memorandum 145: Progressive Discipline and
Promoting Positive Student Behaviour to reflect additional legislative and policy
requirements.
- Discipline is the crack down- mandatory suspension for children who bully as an act of violence,
suspending a kid who is in trouble for an act of violence may not want to be there anyways- which
can get into problems

Recommendations
 Curriculum
– All students learn how to deal with and resolve problems and conflicts
peacefully
– Students gain tools and skills to solve common problems in the classroom and
playground
 - It is up to the school to decide how they want to do that, “how do we do conflict resolution”

 Peer Mediation
– Students are trained in conflict-resolution and mediation and can handle
common student-to-student problems, such as rumours, friendship arguments,
misunderstandings, etc.
– Peer Mediators are expected to communicate effectively, ensure confidentiality,
remain neutral, find the underlying cause of conflict, know the steps for
resolving conflicts and maintain self-control.
- Want them to be able to be mediated, left for someone to design a program for someone to come
up with a way that we are able to incorporate peer mediation

 Professional Development
– Need to train staff on the conflict-resolution curriculums and for certain roles, such
as policy makers, counselors, and administrators.
– Teaching staff about programs, how to implement them, and how to model them.
- P.D DAYS- there needs to be staff training within the schools for teachers so they are able to pass
down these skills to their students and to essentially keep students safe (example; bullying)

 Parent/Community Initiatives
– Provide training and materials for families to reinforce conflict-resolution strategies
at home.
– Encourages parents to help at school, as negotiators or facilitators of peer
mediation- parents can help facilitate these programs.
– Other people in the community can also be involved, like police, business, churches,
local government agencies, and community and public services.
- Children are learning the languages and actions from their parents that the exhibit and repeat this
behaviour based on exposure from home- they learn to be aggressive and how to overpower other
children- and being a bully victim is being just as bad- being a victim in an environment and
knowing where to put that
- How do you tell the community and caregivers of all the children in the class where we only use
effective language- start talking to parents individually because these are the things that we can do
and are able to do because it is a tough situation

 School-wide Reinforcement and Behaviour Management Systems

– Conflict-resolution programs
– The program should be integrated into school policies and procedures and be
outlined in the student/school handbook.
– Develop a policy so when new teachers come on board we are all on the same
page- and actions have consequences and what we expect from our staff and
from our students

Ministry’s Safe Schools Page

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/safeschools.html
- Resources for families and parents, and bullying and the different types of bullying and
how to deal with it and the effects of bullying- but you can’t force parents to do this
although it is important for not only the family but the specific child- up to schools to
provide this information to the students and the parents and family and also a safe arrival
from the home to the school and from the school to home.What happens on the bus to
school is also the schools responsibility
 Examples of Conflict-Resolution Programs in Ontario Schools

Kelso’s Choices (Conflict Management Program for Children)

 Child can resolve conflict and is capable of being a peacemaker.
http://kelsoschoice.com/the-program/about-kelsos-choice/
- For children to have conflict management skills
- Has been used in classrooms and has been given awards for program design
- Designed to be used in classrooms designed by a person who put together this program
and it got picked up by the ministry

SNAP Program - Stop Now and Plan

 Helps students think before they act
 Can reduce impulsiveness or reactive responses to conflicts with peers
 Encourages students to describe how they feel and think about a situation
 Helps students recognize physical and emotional signs before they react to a problem
(understand the problem trigger)
https://childdevelop.ca/snap/

Peace-first Peacemakers Program

 Teaches students positive attitudes and values related to violence, and trains youth in
conflict-related psychosocial skills such as anger management, and problem solving.
 The program includes a variety of classroom activities, including instruction, role-plays,
hand outs, and experiential exercises.
http://www.cfchildren.org/second-step

 Strong students are selected to become ‘peacemakers’ or peer-mediators in their school

playground at recesses and lunches
 Peacemakers walk around the playground and mediate or assist students who need help in
solving conflicts or communicating
 At an elementary school in Toronto, the school reports indicated that the intervention was
associated with a 41% decrease in disciplinary incidents and 67% fewer suspensions
- Designed by the digital activities centre
- Get to peer meditation mandates that were put down from the province
- Gives the initiative and the power of the initiative from the teacher to the students and lets them
see what this can do for them essentially

Second Step: A Violence Prevention Curriculum

 Classroom-based social skills program for 4-14 years old children.
 Aim is to reduce impulsive, aggressive behaviour and to increase social-emotional
competence.
http://www.cfchildren.org/second-step
- All over the place, from very young to middle school children, staff training, student lessons and
the research that is behind it and reviews of the research