Dear editor,
I must comment on the letter written by the anonymous mother who has concerns about her son's safety and the appropriate disciplinary action against the bullies that are harassing him.
It is disheartening to see that the same tactics used over 30 years ago are still in play. The staff, and even the RCMP, are still playing the same games of "blame the victim" instead of making sure that the bullying stops.
This is, as the mother herself stated, an "Epic Fail."
If this was a workplace instead of a school, the student, or rather
employee, would be able to go to a supervisor and request that it
stop, immediately. If the supervisory chain of command did not do
anything, they could then move to human resources and file a complaint there about the hostile work environment. If that did not stop it, then Worksafe BC could be accessed, as well as the RCMP. We take such behaviour seriously in the adult work environment, why is this not the same in our children's schools?
What is happening to this child, and others, is nothing less than pure and simple assault and should be treated as such. Threats of physical harm and sexual harassment should be taken seriously and immediate action taken on part by the principal of the school when an incident is brought forward, especially when the issue
is as long standing as this one has been.
Victims of this sort of assault are often terrified to bring up any of the incidents, for the simple expressed fear that by doing so, they will make the situation worse.
Re-educating the victim on how to find new friends is not where we
should be focusing our efforts to stop and curtail bullying. We
should be focusing on stopping the aggressor, even if that means
bringing up criminal charges.
The victims should be offered counselling if they so choose to take it. If bullying continues even if the victim has come forward, it simply proves that the bully was right — nothing will be done to stop them no matter what is done.
No adult would willingly work in such a hostile environment. Nor
would an adult be expected to put up with such a hostile environment, so why do we expect our kids to?
No child should ever have to go to school in fear.
Yolanda Goodwin,
Cumberland