What Mr. Johnston had to Say about Peace Initiatives
Q: Do you feel that bullying is a serious issue in schools?
A: It’s a huge issue, anywhere it takes place, but in schools it definitely takes place. So, yes, it’s a big issue.
Q: Do you have any suggestions on how victims of bullying can get help?
A: That’s a difficult question; an important question. Typically, the victims constantly are victimized,
picked on, and their self-confidence is so low that they’re scared to do a thing about it, so that’s very difficult.
The biggest issue is identifying them. So we need victims to come forward, we need their friends to come forward,
we need their parents to come forward, we need adults to identify them. Then we need to work with them in any way we can.
If there’s an incident, we need to work with the victim to build up their self-esteem. So that they can feel safe.
Q: I know that many victims of bullying feel afraid to report incidents to teachers and parents for fear that
the bullies will find out and simply worsen the attacks. Do schools have any form of protection for victims who come forward?
A: Yeah, that’s the biggest issue with victims. And with our Peace Initiatives, we look at the bullying,
we look at the victims, and then, of course, the bystanders. But with the victims, they don’t want to come forward.
So anytime I hear about a situation and I’m working with a student who’s a victim, I talk about a process that we go through.
One is to deal with the bully in a way that outlines exactly what they can and can’t do. If the bully retaliates,
then I assure the victim that the next level of consequence that we move to is bringing the bully in with their parents.
The last thing parents want to do is to be called into the school by the principal. And often that stops the bullying,
but again, if the bully is consistent and continues to do it, the next level of consequence is a suspension, and again,
usually if you reach that third level, the parents will make sure the bully doesn’t do it ever again. The extreme situation
where a bully is just continuing to do it, and do it, and do it, and we get to the fourth level, that’s the level of expulsion.
Usually it’s level one or two that the bully stops. So, it’s explaining that to all the victims that we follow through.
It’s the follow-through, they want to make sure it happens.
Q: Is there anything that schools can do to stop bullying outside of school as well as inside?
A: Yes. Get the parents involved. We call it the learning community, which is Sandstone, McEwan and Brentwood,
but all the adults, teachers, parents, students, and so on. And the parents have to recognize that they play a major role.
Parents of the bullies play a major role, parents of the victims play a major role, and parents of the bystanders play a major role.
The other thing is, I let families know that people who are involved in bullying, that the school, and the principal,
actually have jurisdiction over the students in that school. So, if there’s an incident on Saturday,
and one of you is beating up the other person, because you both attend this school, because it’s a school situation,
meaning I can help let the responsible parties understand what’s appropriate and what isn’t. So if I talk to the bully
who is beating up the person on Saturday, and their parent, and I follow that process, and they continue to do it on Sunday,
I can dole out that process of getting the parents in here, suspending, and so on. And we have a legal responsibility to do that.
Most people don’t realize that. Most people think you walk across the street, and I can’t touch you, which is actually wrong.
Q: Have you noticed any general indicators that a student is being bullied?
A: Yeah. Many victims will just show it in the way they behave at school. Often they’re alone,
often they would be described as loners, often they’re shy. Often they have bouts of anger and they will just flare.
And often they’re non-attenders, they don’t want to come to school. Often their school work is not meeting their potential.
So, if they’re a straight A student and they’re getting C’s. Or if they’re a C student, but they’re failing.
Usually, there’s a lot of signs.
Q: It seems that msn and other forms of internet chat lines have recently become a bullying issue.
What are you thoughts on that?
A: Ugh! I would agree a thousand percent. Chat lines are a severe form. In fact,
I read a newspaper article over the weekend that talked about this. I have written two articles in our school newsletter,
one last year, and one a couple months ago, about that very thing. Typically, the chat lines,
although the article in the paper disagreed with this, typically, the chatline harassment, verbal harassment,
is very much female to female. There’s a tremendous amount of name-calling, and threats and whatnot.
I’ve had parents bring their child in with a script of what came over the msn, about the friend of the child
threatening them and ongoing, and ongoing, and ongoing. You can actually easily access the script.
And you can’t imagine what’s being said over msn, well, maybe you can, but it’s terrible. It happens all the time.
Guys do it a bit, girls do it constantly. And best friends became worst enemies because of it.
Q: Which form of bullying do you think is more harmful: verbal, or physical? Why?
A: Oh, man, both. They’re both awful. I think they both have the potential to be equally as bad.
Physical, often we can see the scars of physical harassment, and the hurt, and perhaps the scars.
But emotional scars are just as deep-seated. And people who are afraid, because they’re constantly being reprimanded,
or threatened, or whatever, the emotional scars are very deep and it affects their whole well-being.
So, I think they’re both equally bad.
Q: Do you have any suggestions or advice for parents who are worried about their children being bullied?
A: If it has anything to do with school, give me a call. Parents need to get involved and call the school,
call the police, call whatever. In many cases, parents will not make that call, because they’re scared that when they come forward,
the child will be bullied more and there’ll be more retaliation. And adults, and certainly students, need to believe in the system;
that the adults in the building here will help fix it, and if that’s not enough, we’ll get outside services, including the police,
until it stops. And many parents don’t recognize how that works.
Q: Recently, the school received a peace medal award for the Peace Initiatives, how has that affected you, and the school?
What are your feelings about it?
A: That was very cool. We had no idea what that competition was about, I was asked to submit something for this award,
and we had no idea what it was all about. It was super that we were recognized. We were the only educational institution in
Calgary and area that was recognized, and that was very cool. We (representatives of the school) went to this banquet,
and there were over five hundred people there, it was incredible. So, that was very neat, just realizing that this is a big deal.
But I think, most importantly, I want the learning community, students and parents, to recognize that this is a huge deal.
We’re really proud, and we hope that students are proud too.
Q: What inspired you to do Peace Initiatives?
A: I’ve always felt, especially as an administrator and a principal, I do not want one student coming to school scared.
And if there’s one, there’s on too many. And realistically, there’s probably more than one, in any given school,
at any given point in time. So, I want every student feeling safe and happy and wanting to come to school.
So, that’s the inspiration there.
Q: Have you ever organized something like Peace Initiatives before?
A: At my former school, we started something similar, and it ran for two years, and then I left that school and came here.
We called it "Bully Busters".
Q: How did you come up with the activities that would take place during Peace Initiatives?
A: The program has evolved. Initially, we weren’t sure how they were going to come out (the activities).
We wanted to see the parents get involved, and come up with ideas. And then we got the students involved and coming up with ideas.
The first year, we brought in some presenters, and we did a lot of professional development with the staff.
We did a book study, and we got ideas from all of these different things. And to this year, having our three days,
that was kinda cool, we had a lot of fun. And right now, we’re actually planning for next year for Peace Initiative days,
and again, it’s just a process, we keep coming up with ideas. So, it’s constant brainstorming.
Q: What was that book called again?
A: The Respectful School. Awesome book. So, the administrative team, all the team leaders in the school,
there are about ten of us, I got copies of this for everyone, and then we read it and then we talked about it.
And it’s full of ideas. To go back a couple years when they started Peace Initiatives, there were a lot of people
in this learning community, including a lot of parents and even a number of staff, who didn’t believe we had a problem here.
And the issue is that when the bullies are active, they don’t do it in front of the adults, they do it in the locker room,
they do it in the lunchroom, they do it when the teacher’s not around. But when you talk to the kids, the kid’s will tell
you right straight forward, this is when it happens, these are the victims, and these are the bullies. And I talked to a number
of kids last year, and they were very up front with me about identifying the problem.
Q: Do you feel that Peace Initiatives has affected the school in any way?
A: I hope so. Yeah, I think we can really tell the culture of the school, the environment, the atmosphere,
continues to be more positive. It’s not perfect, we still have a ways to go, but I think students really feel a
lot of own ownership for their school. I’m hoping they feel safe.
Q: Would you recommend Peace Initiatives to other schools? Why?
A: Oh, I have. In fact, a number of principals from other schools have studied our program, have heard about our program,
and are wanting ideas for our program. I constantly recommend it. In fact, principals, have to write up a school development
plan for every year, and we focus on goals. And usually, the goals are very curriculum-based, and,
let’s say following the achievement exam results, how to increase math results, whatnot. Our number one goal was our Peace
Initiatives this year. And other schools are starting to come up with that too.
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