A St. Albert mother is pushing for local schools to take bullying more seriously, while educators insist the issue is taken more seriously now than ever before.
Alison Brown*, the mother of a 14-year-old daughter who attends Richard S. Fowler Catholic Junior High School, says bullying is so rampant that she fears for her daughter's life.
"My daughter, she's not the type of person that you think would be bullied," Brown said. "She's smart and she's a very good athlete. She's very beautiful, she's an honour student and she's very kind."
Despite this, the Grade 9 student has been targeted by a group of peers who are relentless with verbal attacks over Facebook, MSN, text messaging and in the classroom, Brown said.
Even after switching schools, the bullying continued to the point where her daughter said she wanted to give up. Brown is acutely aware of cases around the world of people committing suicide as a result of being bullied.
"It does happen every day and I don't think these kids are made aware of it enough," Brown said, adding a co-worker recently lost his son to suicide as a result of being bullied.
Last Wednesday was international Day of Pink that saw more than eight million people worldwide wear pink to mark the fifth anniversary of the day to stop bullying, discrimination, homophobia and transphobia. There were, however, no events in St. Albert.
School responsibility
"I think the school doesn't take it as serious as they should. I think they think it's part of growing up and it's not," Brown said of bullying.
Brown said she would like to see bullying awareness start in elementary schools and would like to see educational institutions take a stand against bullying when a case is reported.
Local school officials say bullying is taken seriously in area schools, with many schools mandated to investigate each reported case.
"(Kids are) far more aware of issues that surround bullying than they've ever been," said Fowler principal Shawn Haggerty. "Bullying is much less of an issue now that it has been [in the past]."
He said the way to address bullying is to eliminate the silence and fear associated with it.
"All the research around bullying says that the way to get it stopped is to address it head on," Haggerty said, adding this means talking with both kids and parents when an issue comes up.
Gloria Knutson, counsellor at Muriel Martin Elementary School, said bullying is taken seriously at the elementary level as well.
"Anytime that a child reports to us … we look into the matter immediately because it's unacceptable," she said. "It's a matter of looking at how can we help the child to change his behaviour. That's where the complexities lie."
She said bullying happens everywhere and it is important that the issue is taken seriously to prevent it from continuing.
Lasting impact
Brown is concerned about the lasting impact of bullying.
"I think a word is more hurtful than a punch because that punch, the bruise is going to go away," Brown said. "Words don't go away that easy and I know this because we've lived this."
She said bullying doesn't just affect the targeted victim, but rather affects the entire classroom, the family and the community as a whole.
*The mother's name has been changed to protect the identity of her daughter.
