When I was a secondary vice-principal, it was not unusual to have a student sidle up to me and say: “Mr. Johnson, could we talk? Some of us are a bit worried about Richard — he’s been acting weird and talking a lot about weird things, violence and stuff like that — some of us are becoming a bit scared of him.”
What followed was usually a recommendation from me to the school counsellor that she take the opportunity to check in quietly with Richard and get a feel for what it was about him that had the other kids worried.
As an elementary school principal, because of the nature of the school’s population — troubled kids living with mom while dad was doing time in the federal penitentiary — I often relied on the school’s police liaison officer or the local social worker to fill in the gaps about why a particular student demonstrated violent tendencies and kept exploding in class for no apparent reason.
Again, the counsellor assigned to the school was brought into the picture to work with the student and, if possible, the parent.
That was over 40 years ago, but now, at a time when the world for many kids has become increasingly complex because of confusion over everything from gender identity to uber-violence in the media they use, we need more, not fewer, specifically trained school counsellors whose job it is to listen, connect and problem solve with and for our kids.
Yet it is always counselling programs that are the first to bear the brunt of budget cuts, and I hear politicians demanding that money be allocated first “to the classroom.”
According to a study published in the International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling back in 1999, both school violence and the incidence of violent crimes among 91原创 youth are increasing.
Twenty years later, in 2019, CBC researchers interviewed 4,000 students of all ages across Canada and the results were shocking: 41 per cent of boys said they were physically assaulted at high school; 26 per cent of girls said they experienced unwanted sexual contact at school; and one in four students first experienced sexual harassment or assault before Grade 7.
Maybe the most telling discovery was that nearly 50 per cent of high school kids had not reported the violence they’d experienced or witnessed.
School counsellors are specifically trained to establish trust and to draw kids out when they are reluctant to reveal their anxieties and what worries them about the behaviours of some of their friends.
The deeply concerning findings from the CBC survey of student-on-student violence resulted in the 91原创 Centre for Child Protection calling for more training in school personnel to curb the problem.
As one example, a program developed by the organization Kids in the Know devised in Manitoba caters to students from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Topics include healthy relationships, safe and responsible use of technology, addressing high-risk behaviour, the public nature of the Internet and loss of control of shared content, as well as building capacity to handle difficult situations and knowing when to seek help.
The program, according to the developers, is used in thousands of schools across Canada and has received the nationally recognized Curriculum Services of Canada seal of approval.
Lessons are matched to outcomes mandated by departments of education in all jurisdictions across Canada.
Is this a column motivated by the 22-year-old Shelbourne Street bank shooters who their friends perceived as being “a bit different,” or the 18- and 19-year old Port Alberni boys who in 2019 left their homes and for reasons still unknown went on a random killing spree through northern B.C., or even the recent swarming and bashing at a school in Surrey?
No, not at all.
Nor is it written because of a database project undertaken by the Washington Post that tracked every act of gunfire at a primary or secondary school during school hours in the U.S. since the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999.
When the Post analyzed these shootings, it found that more than two-thirds were committed by shooters under the age of 18. The analysis found that the median age for school shooters was 16.
I’m writing this because at-risk kids in 2022 are at far greater risk from the influence of the media they use to communicate, the gun violence in the movies they watch and the undercurrent of violence that is becoming an increasing feature of politics both here and in the U.S. — and they need people who know how to talk to them about all this.
I’m writing this because our public school system, now more than ever, needs people who are specially trained to counsel our kids away from the influences that affect their thinking every day and determine what “normal” should be.
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools
