A Manitoba father is warning that by doing away with heavy-handed discipline, the public school system has put his son and his peers in danger.
Grant Moore said he has repeatedly appealed to leaders in Birtle-based Park West School Division in recent months to protect his eldest child from death threats and ongoing bullying.
The boy, who just began Grade 6 at Rossburn Elementary School, continues to be targeted by another student who is one year older than him, Moore said.
“We had to fight with him to get him to go to school (this fall),” said the father from Solsgirth, a farming community about 300 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
“And I don’t blame him for not wanting to go when the school’s not protecting him.”
Moore said the situation escalated in May when his then-10-year-old was subjected to a death threat and, several weeks later, a gun made of Lego was pointed at him.
The school suspended the other student for three days after the first incident and then issued a directive to have him home-schooled for the remainder of the school year, he said.
The father of three noted his requests for an expulsion were denied.
Instead, the families involved met and the bully was forced to apologize to his son, he said, adding he was assured the student would receive counselling and be kept at a distance from his child in 2024-25.
Moore said his son continues to be targeted by the same student and the latest incident involved him being intimidated in a school washroom this week.
“I’m asking for something simple. I’m asking for an expulsion,” he said, adding he’s concerned the student could bring a real weapon to school.
Manitoba Education issued a policy directive last year to minimize the use of exclusionary practices, such as suspensions and expulsions, in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 buildings.
The 40-page document calls for more opportunities for students and staff to learn to respond to unwanted behaviour in alternative ways, including “restorative practice.”
“Supportive student discipline should be about teaching and learning. Rather than employing a suspension, the supportive strategies are used and reframed as learning opportunities,” states an excerpt.
As far as Moore is concerned, “students are running the schools” because they know repercussions are limited.
He has requested a meeting with the education minister to discuss the matter.
A spokesperson for Tracy Schmidt, acting education minister, indicated her office has reached out to schedule a meeting and a member of the inclusion support branch is offering extra support.
“Every student in Manitoba deserves to feel safe and respected in school and in their community,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Supt. Stephen David said all reports of concerning behaviour in Park West are taken seriously and investigated by the division.
“In this particular circumstance, we reviewed and evaluated the parents’ concerns including the alleged threat, followed our policies and protocols and took appropriate action,” David said.
Sandy Szwaluk, chairwoman of the board of trustees, did not provide comment before deadline Wednesday.
Tracy Vaillancourt, Canada Research Chair in school-based mental health and violence prevention, said zero-tolerance policies can cause further academic and behaviour problems.
“We don’t want to discard people who bully…. We do have very punitive approaches to people who are violating the rights of others in adulthood, but these are young people; it’s hard to reconcile,” said the professor of counselling psychology at the University of Ottawa.
Encouraging students to fight back, forced apologies, one-time events to discourage bullying and conflict resolution facilitated by adults have all generally proven ineffective, she said.
Vaillancourt is a proponent of a whole-school approach with clear rules and consistent protocols on progressive discipline and restorative justice.
“If (staff) think that restorative justice means that you bring the perpetrator and their target together to talk it through, there’s a problem,” she said, adding schools should invest in training teachers on research-proven methods.
Schools need to ensure students who are victimized can weigh in on what they would like to see happen while supporting the individuals who have caused harm, the researcher added.
maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca
Maggie Macintosh
Education reporter
Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., Maggie was an intern at the Free Press twice while earning her degree at Ryerson’s School of Journalism (now Toronto Metropolitan University) before joining the newsroom as a reporter in 2019. Read more about Maggie.
Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative.
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