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OSSTF District 11- Thames Valley
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District 11 Office |
Education Matters Online
Feature
Volume 2, Issue 4: May 10, 2004
Safe Schools for a Diverse Population
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Research regarding the issue in our District, contiguous with the TVDSB, conducted in the Spring of 2003 reveals
 | serious problems regarding verbal and physical violence directed at GLTB students among others in the vast majority of schools, |
| deficiencies in administrative response in a similar number of schools, |
| absence of preventative measures in a similar number of schools. |
OSSTF District 11 Human Rights has access to
| materials to help with the issue, |
| a committee of individuals and school representatives who are concerned with the issues, |
| teachers who can help respond to issues, |
| professional development resources, |
| OSSTF’s provincial and district Education Services committees, providers of professional development materials and services. |
OSSTF District 11 Human Rights is aware that
| cross-curricular inclusiveness is not a given, |
| little curriculum is generated centrally by TVDSB, making a meaningful assessment of curriculum opportunities to advocate against hate difficult to measure accurately, |
| implementation is not an easy or rapid task. |
In the Spring of 2003, after attending and presenting at the Ad-Hoc Committee examining the treatment of GLTB youth in TVDSB schools, where we learned that these students are subject to
| physical abuse |
| verbal abuse |
| emotional abuse by others present in their schools, |
we set out to measure the level of incidence of the attacks by surveying Branch Presidents during a meeting at which a report on Human Rights activities was presented. They stated categorically that
| they were aware of incidents in almost every school, |
| the incidents were not one-of-a-kind, but repeated, |
| they were not aware of preventative measures, |
| the application of the then-current Safe Schools Policy was not frequent ie: perpetrators were not dealt with, |
| there was nearly zero "zero tolerance". |
Further reading revealed proof that verbal and emotional abuse is as real and as painful as physical sensation. It is equally dangerous to all genders.
| see also The Weekly Guardian |
| Bruce Pirie in "Boys and Literacy" asserts that the disproof of the male stereotype of tough guys who just "suck it up and go on with life" is evident in the statistic that shows that straight males have four times the successful suicide rate of straight females, who stereotypically would be thought to react more strongly to verbal taunts, shunning and other abuse. |
OSSTF has developed resources to help teachers when working with straight or GLTB students in cases of at-risk behaviours, of dropping out, of violence taunting and exclusion, including:
| School Law 2002 (2002): "A practical guide to legislation, case law and issues for educators. Topics include criminal law, human rights, the Young Offenders Act, safe schools, employee rights, negligence, health legislation, College of Teachers, special education and more. A must have for anyone working in public education in an increasingly complex and constantly changing environment." |
| Students at Risk, Book 1 (2001): "This book is the first of two dealing with students at risk. Book 1 addresses topics such as student identification, accessing support for students and teachers, community and parent involvement, and meeting graduation requirements. In addition, locally developed programs, school-wide implementation models, and classroom behaviour are considered." |
| Students at Risk, Book 2 (2001): "This book is the second of two dealing with students at risk. Book 2 addresses more specific programming issues. Topics such as alternative programs, special education programming, and school-to-work transition programs are covered. In addition, the book deals with literacy, curriculum design, instructional strategies, and assessment and evaluation." |
| Crisis Management (1999): "This book deals with programs like Non-violent Crisis Intervention, Crimestoppers, CAVEAT, Peer Mediation and Break the Silence." |
| Keys to Success: A Guide to Implementing Teacher Advisory Groups (1997): "Mentorship principles, timetable models, advisory programs and accountability procedures." |
| Bridging The Gap: Teaching the Other 3 R's: Rights Respect Responsibilities (1996): "A curriculum unit for teaching consumerism and employment standards to ESL students. Activity exercises, teacher tips, group exercise, jigsaw and research assignments are now ready for classroom use." |
| Antiracism Education (1995): "A practical guide to educators implementing Antiracism and Ethnocultural Equity in school boards including school codes of behavior, curriculum issues, bias in language, school-community interaction and assessment/evaluation materials. This guide will address concerns related to the needs of visible minority and aboriginal students." |
| You've Got It - Use It (1994): "This resource book examines the nature and needs of students at risk and develops a generic model which involves students in the decision-making process. Based on the experiences of four pilot schools, it will hopefully assist and encourage students to take ownership of their learning and choose to stay in school. It is a practical hands-on resource for administrators and classroom teachers and includes an overview of a variety of programs, services and curriculum." |
| Social Issues II: An Educator's Guide to AIDS, Substance Abuse, Violence and Eating Disorders (1990): "This book covers school and board policies, lesson plans, reference material and educators' guides to dealing with these controversial topics." |
Each of these resources has a team of authors and trained workshop facilitators available to work with adults, intervenors and the public.
Additionally, OSSTF develops resource books based on secondary teachers’ requests of resource materials to assist them with problematic areas of their professional lives. Input to District 11 from the provincial committee tells us that they are working on the preparation and distribution of additional new resources around GLTB youth. OSSTF Forum Magazine has also been used as a vehicle to address these issues. At the District level, an ezine is available to all members of the OSSTF; it too could help provide resources to teachers for their work with students and colleagues.
A cursory search of the on-line catalogue of the OSSTF’s provincial collection of resources at Mobile Drive identifies many publications around violence, gender and sexuality. These resources are all available to OSSTF members in schools, on the Human Rights committee or in other locations.
While many critics of the new curriculum have focussed on the quantity of content compressed into less years of high school or arbitrarily moved from a higher grade to a lower one, exclusion is clearly an issue in schools since
| the pressure to complete a "curriculum" means that students’ needs get short shrift |
| Curriculum Profiles from the Ministry of Education appear to be old favourites among activities and units rejigged to match a new format in a "profile" and the expectation statements. The delivery of the profiles before the release of new resources doomed them to a cycle of re-using the same materials as seen before. |
| the pressure on publishers to get new product into the market in time for the "ministry-funded" purchases resulted in the re-appearance of substantial parts of books from previous generations under new covers. |
While certainly not condemning all texts from a previous generation as being inappropriate to their times, without thoroughly re-thinking them, the results have been, as they must, less than appropriate to current times. Editors may have read for the "politically incorrect words" but the attitudes, lifestyles, cultural and gender-role assumptions of 20 to 25 years ago are not representative of what our society is or should be today.
The TVDSB has taken a stance on curriculum implementation that is a facilitator model, rather than a centralized one. This has great advantages in allowing for innovation in various sites, responsiveness to local diversity and shared wealth of ideas. On the other hand, it does make it extremely difficult to examine curriculum for: questions of bias in language, representation or views; inclusion versus exclusion; or opportunities for students to find positive images of themselves in it.
The work of Ray Hughes and others on anti-bullying initiatives is highly valuable and a very useful model. Student-led dramatizations of bullying followed by peer facilitation of discussion are a decidedly effective tool in reshaping students’ responses away from violent ones towards peaceful ones.
OSSTF District 11 firmly supports the TVDSB’s Action Plan on Sexual Diversity and offers its assistance in its implementation.
