Slightly more than 10 per cent of students at Hamilton public high schools say they don’t feel safe there, although that’s significantly better than a year ago.
An annual survey for the school board’s 2018 Positive Culture and Well-Being Report shows 10.8 per cent of students indicated they “rarely or never” feel safe at school.
That’s down from 21.2 per cent in the 2017 survey, when only 53.3 per cent felt safe all or most of the time and 24.5 per cent felt that way sometimes.
The number feeling safe all or most of the time this year jumped to 71.4 per cent, while those only feeling so sometimes fell to 17.7 per cent.
Sharon Stephanian, superintendent for equity and well-being, said despite the improvement, the survey results still fall shy of a goal of an overall increase in students feeling all three — being safe, supported and accepted.
Students who’d been bullied in the past year dropped to 24 per cent from 28 the year before, but there was a minimal change in those feeling accepted by other students and adults, she said in a presentation to trustees.
The number of students who felt there was an adult at school who cared about them also dropped slightly, with 39.7 per cent indicating often, 39.1 sometimes and 19.3 per cent never.
Although a breakdown isn’t provided in the report, it states the number of students believing there was extra help available to them rose by six per cent from the year before.
“Our target was stated such that all three components are going to come together to see improvement,” Stephanian said.
“We’ve got safety going up, supporting going up, acceptance not necessarily, and so we end up with some improvement, but we can’t say there’s overall improvement in the three.”
This year’s survey saw a big jump in participation, with the 6,673 respondents from all high schools the most ever and 1,589 more than last year, when only five high schools took part.
One notable change is in the number of students identifying themselves as being LGBTQ+.
Last year’s survey was the first to include the question and did not provide a breakdown of responses, only reporting that 17.5 per cent of students put themselves in that category.
That dropped to 8.81 per cent this year, but a further 4.27 per cent identified their gender as “other,” with 45.05 per cent listing female and 41.87 per cent male.
Slightly more than 10 per cent of students at Hamilton public high schools say they don’t feel safe there, although that’s significantly better than a year ago.
An annual survey for the school board’s 2018 Positive Culture and Well-Being Report shows 10.8 per cent of students indicated they “rarely or never” feel safe at school.
That’s down from 21.2 per cent in the 2017 survey, when only 53.3 per cent felt safe all or most of the time and 24.5 per cent felt that way sometimes.
The number feeling safe all or most of the time this year jumped to 71.4 per cent, while those only feeling so sometimes fell to 17.7 per cent.
Sharon Stephanian, superintendent for equity and well-being, said despite the improvement, the survey results still fall shy of a goal of an overall increase in students feeling all three — being safe, supported and accepted.
Students who’d been bullied in the past year dropped to 24 per cent from 28 the year before, but there was a minimal change in those feeling accepted by other students and adults, she said in a presentation to trustees.
The number of students who felt there was an adult at school who cared about them also dropped slightly, with 39.7 per cent indicating often, 39.1 sometimes and 19.3 per cent never.
Although a breakdown isn’t provided in the report, it states the number of students believing there was extra help available to them rose by six per cent from the year before.
“Our target was stated such that all three components are going to come together to see improvement,” Stephanian said.
“We’ve got safety going up, supporting going up, acceptance not necessarily, and so we end up with some improvement, but we can’t say there’s overall improvement in the three.”
This year’s survey saw a big jump in participation, with the 6,673 respondents from all high schools the most ever and 1,589 more than last year, when only five high schools took part.
One notable change is in the number of students identifying themselves as being LGBTQ+.
Last year’s survey was the first to include the question and did not provide a breakdown of responses, only reporting that 17.5 per cent of students put themselves in that category.
That dropped to 8.81 per cent this year, but a further 4.27 per cent identified their gender as “other,” with 45.05 per cent listing female and 41.87 per cent male.
Slightly more than 10 per cent of students at Hamilton public high schools say they don’t feel safe there, although that’s significantly better than a year ago.
An annual survey for the school board’s 2018 Positive Culture and Well-Being Report shows 10.8 per cent of students indicated they “rarely or never” feel safe at school.
That’s down from 21.2 per cent in the 2017 survey, when only 53.3 per cent felt safe all or most of the time and 24.5 per cent felt that way sometimes.
The number feeling safe all or most of the time this year jumped to 71.4 per cent, while those only feeling so sometimes fell to 17.7 per cent.
Sharon Stephanian, superintendent for equity and well-being, said despite the improvement, the survey results still fall shy of a goal of an overall increase in students feeling all three — being safe, supported and accepted.
Students who’d been bullied in the past year dropped to 24 per cent from 28 the year before, but there was a minimal change in those feeling accepted by other students and adults, she said in a presentation to trustees.
The number of students who felt there was an adult at school who cared about them also dropped slightly, with 39.7 per cent indicating often, 39.1 sometimes and 19.3 per cent never.
Although a breakdown isn’t provided in the report, it states the number of students believing there was extra help available to them rose by six per cent from the year before.
“Our target was stated such that all three components are going to come together to see improvement,” Stephanian said.
“We’ve got safety going up, supporting going up, acceptance not necessarily, and so we end up with some improvement, but we can’t say there’s overall improvement in the three.”
This year’s survey saw a big jump in participation, with the 6,673 respondents from all high schools the most ever and 1,589 more than last year, when only five high schools took part.
One notable change is in the number of students identifying themselves as being LGBTQ+.
Last year’s survey was the first to include the question and did not provide a breakdown of responses, only reporting that 17.5 per cent of students put themselves in that category.
That dropped to 8.81 per cent this year, but a further 4.27 per cent identified their gender as “other,” with 45.05 per cent listing female and 41.87 per cent male.