Tackling school cyberbullying
Teen suicides prompt probe of growing problem
HALIFAX • Parents, their children, teachers, schools, as well as governments need to be involved in developing rules around the use of cellphones and other devices in a bid to stamp out bullying, according to a mental health expert who looked into a spate of Cape Breton teen suicides.
“What can governments do to help, what do parents need to do to help, what can schools do to help educate young people, and frankly what is the responsibility that every young person has in the use of that device,” said Dr. Stan Kutcher, a Dalhousie University psychiatry professor.
Justin Newell, a 13-year-old transgender boy from Cape Breton, who “filled the house with laughter” according to his aunt, took his own life June 3 after being bullied through social media.
Chris Royal, of North Sydney, N.S., spoke out in June following the death of his 13-year-old daughter, Madison Wilson. Madison, described as outgoing and who loved music, took her own life on Father’s Day after what her parents said was persistent verbal abuse at school and in social media.
Kutcher recommended a provincial policy be developed to address students’ responsible use of personal devices such as cellphones on school grounds.
However, he said he didn’t know how such a regime could be extended away from school — and a wider public discussion needs to take place on where responsibilities lie.
“We are grappling with learning how to be having this technology be in service to us instead of us being of service to it,” he said, according to the CBC.
Education Minister Zach Churchill said the province has a policy governing smart devices on school networks — it demands “appropriate online behaviour” and prohibits cyberbullying — and it would now look at expanding the policy to see if it can cover cellular networks. But Churchill said he wasn’t sure what specific measures might best prevent bullying.
“I don’t think there’s a simple answer to that. We’ve attempted to tackle this challenge in the network policy and we are now going to expand that conversation to include all devices.”
Provincial officials said they would immediately spend $192,000 boosting mental health supports at the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board, which asked for more help in the wake of the suicides. The money would be used to hire two guidance counsellors and a social worker.
Kutcher presented seven recommendations to the Nova Scotia government Wednesday aimed at bolstering mental health services in the wake of the suicides of three teens, at least two of whom had been bullied.
Kutcher’s work was the result of three days of consultation and factfinding with families, school staff and the community after he was dispatched to Cape Breton as part of the province’s response in late June.
Kutcher said a comprehensive approach is needed on teen mental health, which he described as a complex social problem.
“I think that there is a tendency to assume that bullying causes every single problem that young people have, which is just not true,” he told The Cape Breton Post. “We have to be very careful in how we differentiate the normative conflict that can occur amongst young people from bullying and also how to differentiate bullying from cyberbullying, because they’re not the same thing.”
Other recommendations from Kutcher included providing more staff for the province-wide mental health crisis line, and a single “structure” to address all school mental health policies.
He also called for the provincial suicide prevention policy to be updated, and said there needed to be an approved list of mental health-related and intervention programs that could be used from primary to Grade 12.
The provincial government plans to roll out its updated anti-cyberbullying legislation this fall. The previous Cyber-Safety Act, the first of its kind in Canada, was struck down in late 2015 after the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled that it infringed on Charter rights.
The law was part of the response to the death of 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons — a Halifax-area girl who was bullied and died after a suicide attempt.
WE ARE GRAPPLING WITH ... THIS TECHNOLOGY (BEING) IN SERVICE TO US INSTEAD OF US BEING OF SERVICE TO IT.