Ecole St. Vincent Euphrasia Elementary School (SVE) in Meaford held the first meeting of the new Safe School Team on Thursday evening.
The initiative is a result of new legislation passed by the provincial government that came in to effect on February 1.
The first of its kind in Canada, the Keeping our Kids Safe at School Act builds on Ontario's safe schools strategy and is a primary recommendation from the Safe Schools Action team, established by the Ontario Ministry of Education.
It outlines what must happen when serious student incidents or inappropriate student behaviour takes place in schools.
One of the requirements of the new legislation is that each school is now required to establish a Safe School Team to ensure that good practices for school safety are being followed.
The meeting was attended by a half dozen parents, and three school staff members including school principal Oscar Burnside.
Burnside who acted as chair of the meeting shared a provincially produced video that was required viewing for all members of the school staff. The video explained the new legislation, and advised school staff on the handling of issues that affect school safety.
With a goal of enhancing the learning environment, and providing a safe school climate, it is now policy that any student behaviours that have a negative impact on class climate must be dealt with in a timely fashion, and any incident that carries a potential consequence of suspension or expulsion must be reported to the school principal in writing on the day of the incident. A new reporting form has been developed for this purpose.
First on the 'to do list' for the new Safe School Team is to establish their approach, and to clarify their mandate. An initial survey will be conducted that will assess the overall school climate. The survey will seek input from students, staff, and parents.
SVE is fortunate in that many of the more serious types of inappropriate student behaviours such as bringing weapons to school, or use of alcohol and drugs, do not tend to occur in the junior kindergarten through grade five years that the school offers.
Even with the young age of SVE students, there are still issues like bullying that the new legislation and the Safe School Team program are working to address.
OPP constable Bob Sewell who is the Community School Liaison Officer also attended the meeting and offered some valuable insight into dealing with student behaviour and assessing intent to harm of young students. He explained that an act of violence by an older student is much different that one of a five year old who might not yet grasp appropriate social interaction, or the impact of their actions.
Principal Burnside expressed that the challenge for school administrators is to attempt to find the balance between assigning appropriate punishments, while also maintaining a focus on teaching children what appropriate behaviour is. He indicated that it is also important to offer support systems to students who are victims of that inappropriate behaviour.
Every school has to deal with discipline related issues, and SVE is no exception, but Burnside told the group that in a previous survey it was clear that the number of students who engage in actions like bullying are very few, but those few can negatively affect the overall school climate.
With parents, students, teachers, and other school staff working together as a cohesive unit, it is hoped that they can raise awareness and the school climate can be maintained and improved, with the result being that everyone will view the school as a safe place to be.
The next meeting of the SVE Safe School Team is scheduled for March 11.
