High school students in the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board are more likely to experience bullying when compared with other boards, a new survey by the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association shows.
The Ontario Student Survey, taken by more than 2,600 students from across the province by email and Facebook, asks 10 “yes” and “no” questions on issues ranging from mandatory physical education, to cell phone usage in the classroom, to bullying.
It found that 59 per cent of Ottawa Catholic high school respondents have experienced bullying in school – its highest response – while, across the province, only 46 per cent of respondents reported having been bullied.
“This is a survey that started as an idea by students,” says Zane Schwartz, a student trustee – students selected by their peers to bring the student voice to school board tables – who led the project.
“The questions in it were selected by students, and bullying is a hot topic across the province.”
The results show that even with anti-bullying Pink Shirt Day and other large initiatives, bullying is still an important issue, he says.
Peter Atkinson, OCCSB’s superintendent of the continuing and community education department, says he was hit by “shock and a good dose of cynicism” when he read about the survey. “That data is nowhere near compatible to what we’ve collected ourselves,” he says. “We don’t even know exactly how many students from our board participated in the survey, and I believe the majority of that sample was from Grade 12 – so it represents a very, very small portion of our students.”
The voluntary survey received responses from students in 69 of the 72 school boards in Ontario. Out of all respondents, 71 per cent were female and 85 per cent were in Grade 12, which is important to consider when interpreting the numbers, notes Schwartz.
Results for the 15 boards with the greatest total number of respondents – both OCCSB and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board qualified – were also displayed separately.
This isn’t the first time the OCCSB has been in hot water over bullying. Last fall, the board settled a $325,000 lawsuit launched by Krisha Stanton, whose 10-year-old daughter was bullied.
Controversy over using the name “Gay-Straight Alliance” for clubs that provide a space safe from homophobic bullying has also put Catholic schools in the recent spotlight after the Halton Catholic District School Board banned them earlier this year. Atkinson says it’s a matter of not wanting to label students.
“The grounding core of Catholic education is a respect for life and dignity of individuals,” he says. “Our schools are safe, as well as caring. We have 30-plus initiatives addressing bullying such as training older students to be bully busters out at recess and such.”
Marc Roy attended an Ottawa Catholic high school, graduating in 2006, and says his experience was positive.
“The atmosphere at Holy Trinity in Kanata was very inclusive,” says Roy, who is openly gay. “I, myself, didn’t encounter any homophobia, but I’m not too surprised by the survey’s bullying findings. It’s a serious issue.”
The OCCSB conducted a school climate survey for the 2009-2010 school year for Grades 7 to 12 and received 3,318 responses. Only 22 per cent reported to have experienced bullying – the same as the national norm, he says.
The board is in the process of doing another survey with 4,143 responses so far and 18 per cent reporting to have been bullied. According to Atkinson, that survey will be completed by April.