Physical And Verbal Confrontations Not Weapons Biggest Concerns On T.O. School Hotline
Posted May 20, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Guns. Knives. Lockdowns.
Things sure have changed a lot since you went to school. A new Toronto District School Board report on how to combat increasing levels of violence in the halls and classrooms of our learning institutions may involve an increased police presence, an idea that some students decry and others welcome.
All of this was in response to the shooting of Jordan Manners almost exactly year ago at CW Jefferys C.I. One of the first things the Board did was to implement a student hotline kids could call to discuss their fears, worries and any imminent threats. It’s been up and running since mid-January and it gives an interesting snapshot of what’s going on at some campuses across the city.
The line gets 30 calls a day and the Board indicates nearly half – 47 per cent – have required further intervention. What are the leading concerns?
Exactly 50 per cent are listed as the non-informative “other,” meaning complaints or calls about general safety issues or suggestions regarding programs.
The biggest violence worry is physical or verbal confrontations, with 15 per cent of the kids calling to report incidents in which they or someone else was threatened.
The old school standby, bullying, attracted 12 per cent of the calls.
Harassment, including taunts based on gender or sexual orientation, made up 10 per cent of the kids’ gripes.
And extortion or drugs came during seven per cent of all the phoned-in concerns.
And despite the growing feeling that many students are coming to school armed, just one per cent actually called in about that.
Maybe what’s most interesting about the stats from the line is this: there’s a perception that the bulk of the problems are in the city’s high schools. But 40 per cent of all calls actually came from elementary students, while just 15 per cent dialed the digits in the higher grades. Parents, teachers and concerned community members were also on the list of callers.
The fact that elementary-aged kids made up the majority of student dialers doesn’t surprise TDSB trustee Sheila Carey-Meagher. “Kids in [grades] 6, 7 and 8 are a little more open, a little less directed in their feelings, and they might be easier or more readily open to communicating with people,” she points out.
Stu Auty, of the Canadian Safe School Network, concurs. His group runs an online reporting service and has discovered the same thing.
“We have a tremendous number of hits from both parents and younger children. But the 6, 7 and 8 area is where kids [aren’t] experiencing … some of the more serious bullying incidents, and they’re also old enough that they’re able to in this case call in and are willing to do that. Whereas the younger children won’t necessarily, and the older kids find that if they don’t get direct help, that it’s just essentially not helping them.”
The Board intends to expand the hotline to make it possible to report incidents anonymously over the web and also set up a TTY line for deaf or hard of hearing students.
For now, anyone can leave a message by calling (416) 395-7233 (SAFE). For more on the line and when to use it, click here.
