Chanting “make school safe,” about 300 students at Alexander Galt Regional High School in Lennoxville, Que., abandoned their afternoon classes Thursday to protest against what they say is the school’s bullying problem.
The demonstration was in response to what they call a lack of action from the administrators at the school and school board to continual incidents of bullying and intimidation.
The latest came on Tuesday, when a 15-year-old female student is alleged to have been threatened at knifepoint by a male student.
The alleged victim told Radio-Canada there were about a dozen witnesses to the attack, and a teacher confiscated the knife.
Police are investigating the incident, but so far, no charges have been laid against the alleged perpetrator.
“I feel like the school is out of hand,” said Grade 9 student Olivia Chute, who is a close friend of the alleged victim. “We should be safer. It could be me. I don’t want this to happen to anyone I go to school with.”
Chute said there have already this academic year, there have been a half dozen public fights, and she thinks the issue is being overshadowed by other concerns about student behaviour, like smoking.
“When there is bullying, the bully either gets in trouble for a little bit, or gets suspended, or they don’t do anything about it,” she said.
“We don’t get heard, and the principals don’t do anything about it,” said another protester,14-year-old Jazmine Mcdonald.
There are 900 students at the high school.
School board to review its anti-bullying policy
The chair of the Eastern Townships School Board, Michael Murray, told CBC’s Quebec AM before Thursday’s protest that he was shocked to hear about Tuesday’s alleged incident, and he said the board will review its anti-bullying policy.
“It’s hard to know why ongoing bullying would not have been addressed already,” said Murray said.
He said the board has a clear protocol, which includes keeping track of all reported incidents.
“The complaint process is quite extensive, quite clearly laid out,” he said.
Murray said the alleged perpetrator has been suspended from school, and the board is co-operating with the police investigation.
“The presumed aggressor is not in the school and will not be back until we can clarify what the outcome of the incident was,” Murray said.
Several of the protesters said that youth was still on school premises Thursday but that he was not in class.
The school’s vice-principal, Steve Element, declined an interview and referred the CBC to the school board. No one was available to comment on the protest.
Parents upset they weren’t notified sooner
Some parents were also at the protest.
Victoria Berwick, who has a daughter in Grade 7 who did not participate in the demonstration, said she called the school to find out what was happening with the walkout and was told students were already returning to class. However, there were more than 150 students still outside when she drove by.
Berwick said it should not have taken so long — more than 24 hours — for parents to be notified about Tuesday’s alleged incident.
“Why not just ease our minds?” she asked. “I would like my daughter and the other students to feel safe at school.”
Berwick said her daughter, who is new to the school, has told her mother about bullying incidents at the school. She said one friend of her daughter eats her lunch in the bathroom to avoid being harassed.
Another parent, Amber Stremmelaar, who has children in Grades 8 and 10, said she’s always considered the school to be fairly safe, and this is the first time she’s heard of such bullying incidents.
She said the letter from the school came “a little late.”
“It didn’t really say anything,” Stremmelaar said. It did say the board couldn’t comment because of the ongoing police investigation, she said, and that led to the spread of rumours.
“That just left everybody open to letting their minds wander,” she said. “Everybody is saying anything and everything, and a lot that is on Facebook.”