A daughter repeatedly stomped on the head by another girl as a crowd of high school students look on, some recording the assault on smartphones.
Four male teens chasing a student into a Mountain high school, attacking him and any teachers who try to intervene while bystanders take videos of the confrontation.
A group of high school girls relentlessly picking on another girl, including through graphic online videos and social media posts where they discuss the violent things they’d like to do to her.
Gary Warner has been inundated with stories like these, of bullying at Hamilton public schools, as he and two other expert panellists hold consultation sessions as part of their task of advising trustees on how to stem the problem.
The accounts range from a girl whose self-confidence is being shredded because she’s a tomboy and constantly questioned about her gender, to the persistent bullying that led 17-year-old Sir Winston Churchill Secondary student Christopher Howell to take his own life.
But Warner says a common thread is a “really worrying” lack of respect for adults, authority and anyone who doesn’t conform to what bullies see as normal.
And the retired McMaster University professor says it’s a societal problem fuelled by the rise of social media, including on the political stage, where U.S. president Donald Trump has made “hurling insults” seem like normal social intercourse.
“It’s sort of taking us back to a really tribal age,” Warner says. “I think social media obviously has a lot to do with it because so much of the intimidation is carried online and is very difficult to detect. There’s kind of a group identity that seems to form in all of these group chats that they set up.”
Warner says some clear preventive strategies are already emerging, even though his panel isn’t scheduled to present interim recommendations until the end of May, a goal set before the coronavirus outbreak put additional consultation sessions on hold.
These include the need to teach kids from an early age to respect difference, whether it be hair or skin colour, accent or other attributes, like being bright.
Warner says early intervention is also critical but not happening enough, and must start by taking bullying incidents seriously and acknowledging the potential harm to victims.
Staff training on the skills to investigate incidents will be a necessary component, he adds.
“It has to be properly investigated to understand not just what happened immediately at that point, but you’ve got to trace it back” to root causes, Warner says.
He says his son was physically bullied while attending a Hamilton Catholic middle school, for instance, and after a successful intervention by the principal found the perpetrator was being bullied by his father, the bullying stopped.
Other strategies include ensuring parents are informed when their child is bullied — lack of communication is a recurring complaint — and reporting incidents even when they don’t result in discipline, to give the sense of a school’s climate.
Warner says students’ ability to self-regulate their behaviour should also be tracked, much as with progress in subjects like math and English.
“We’re still in the early days (of the review), so I’m not yet sure where and how you do it, but you have to be able to track behaviour over a number of years so you can anticipate behavioural problems and you can deal with that,” he says.
“Early intervention is also a great opportunity to begin to explore, to talk about how should we behave toward each other.”
The province is providing funding for the panel review and Warner says it must lead to solutions, not just for the Hamilton public board, but all boards grappling with bullying.
“It’s actually to me quite devastating the extent of the harm that I’m hearing reported. It’s so serious I think it would be impossible not to act,” he says. “To let this continue, to brush it off, I think would cause such a disaster.”
A daughter repeatedly stomped on the head by another girl as a crowd of high school students look on, some recording the assault on smartphones.
Four male teens chasing a student into a Mountain high school, attacking him and any teachers who try to intervene while bystanders take videos of the confrontation.
A group of high school girls relentlessly picking on another girl, including through graphic online videos and social media posts where they discuss the violent things they’d like to do to her.
Gary Warner has been inundated with stories like these, of bullying at Hamilton public schools, as he and two other expert panellists hold consultation sessions as part of their task of advising trustees on how to stem the problem.
The accounts range from a girl whose self-confidence is being shredded because she’s a tomboy and constantly questioned about her gender, to the persistent bullying that led 17-year-old Sir Winston Churchill Secondary student Christopher Howell to take his own life.
But Warner says a common thread is a “really worrying” lack of respect for adults, authority and anyone who doesn’t conform to what bullies see as normal.
And the retired McMaster University professor says it’s a societal problem fuelled by the rise of social media, including on the political stage, where U.S. president Donald Trump has made “hurling insults” seem like normal social intercourse.
“It’s sort of taking us back to a really tribal age,” Warner says. “I think social media obviously has a lot to do with it because so much of the intimidation is carried online and is very difficult to detect. There’s kind of a group identity that seems to form in all of these group chats that they set up.”
Warner says some clear preventive strategies are already emerging, even though his panel isn’t scheduled to present interim recommendations until the end of May, a goal set before the coronavirus outbreak put additional consultation sessions on hold.
These include the need to teach kids from an early age to respect difference, whether it be hair or skin colour, accent or other attributes, like being bright.
Warner says early intervention is also critical but not happening enough, and must start by taking bullying incidents seriously and acknowledging the potential harm to victims.
Staff training on the skills to investigate incidents will be a necessary component, he adds.
“It has to be properly investigated to understand not just what happened immediately at that point, but you’ve got to trace it back” to root causes, Warner says.
He says his son was physically bullied while attending a Hamilton Catholic middle school, for instance, and after a successful intervention by the principal found the perpetrator was being bullied by his father, the bullying stopped.
Other strategies include ensuring parents are informed when their child is bullied — lack of communication is a recurring complaint — and reporting incidents even when they don’t result in discipline, to give the sense of a school’s climate.
Warner says students’ ability to self-regulate their behaviour should also be tracked, much as with progress in subjects like math and English.
“We’re still in the early days (of the review), so I’m not yet sure where and how you do it, but you have to be able to track behaviour over a number of years so you can anticipate behavioural problems and you can deal with that,” he says.
“Early intervention is also a great opportunity to begin to explore, to talk about how should we behave toward each other.”
The province is providing funding for the panel review and Warner says it must lead to solutions, not just for the Hamilton public board, but all boards grappling with bullying.
“It’s actually to me quite devastating the extent of the harm that I’m hearing reported. It’s so serious I think it would be impossible not to act,” he says. “To let this continue, to brush it off, I think would cause such a disaster.”
A daughter repeatedly stomped on the head by another girl as a crowd of high school students look on, some recording the assault on smartphones.
Four male teens chasing a student into a Mountain high school, attacking him and any teachers who try to intervene while bystanders take videos of the confrontation.
A group of high school girls relentlessly picking on another girl, including through graphic online videos and social media posts where they discuss the violent things they’d like to do to her.
Gary Warner has been inundated with stories like these, of bullying at Hamilton public schools, as he and two other expert panellists hold consultation sessions as part of their task of advising trustees on how to stem the problem.
The accounts range from a girl whose self-confidence is being shredded because she’s a tomboy and constantly questioned about her gender, to the persistent bullying that led 17-year-old Sir Winston Churchill Secondary student Christopher Howell to take his own life.
But Warner says a common thread is a “really worrying” lack of respect for adults, authority and anyone who doesn’t conform to what bullies see as normal.
And the retired McMaster University professor says it’s a societal problem fuelled by the rise of social media, including on the political stage, where U.S. president Donald Trump has made “hurling insults” seem like normal social intercourse.
“It’s sort of taking us back to a really tribal age,” Warner says. “I think social media obviously has a lot to do with it because so much of the intimidation is carried online and is very difficult to detect. There’s kind of a group identity that seems to form in all of these group chats that they set up.”
Warner says some clear preventive strategies are already emerging, even though his panel isn’t scheduled to present interim recommendations until the end of May, a goal set before the coronavirus outbreak put additional consultation sessions on hold.
These include the need to teach kids from an early age to respect difference, whether it be hair or skin colour, accent or other attributes, like being bright.
Warner says early intervention is also critical but not happening enough, and must start by taking bullying incidents seriously and acknowledging the potential harm to victims.
Staff training on the skills to investigate incidents will be a necessary component, he adds.
“It has to be properly investigated to understand not just what happened immediately at that point, but you’ve got to trace it back” to root causes, Warner says.
He says his son was physically bullied while attending a Hamilton Catholic middle school, for instance, and after a successful intervention by the principal found the perpetrator was being bullied by his father, the bullying stopped.
Other strategies include ensuring parents are informed when their child is bullied — lack of communication is a recurring complaint — and reporting incidents even when they don’t result in discipline, to give the sense of a school’s climate.
Warner says students’ ability to self-regulate their behaviour should also be tracked, much as with progress in subjects like math and English.
“We’re still in the early days (of the review), so I’m not yet sure where and how you do it, but you have to be able to track behaviour over a number of years so you can anticipate behavioural problems and you can deal with that,” he says.
“Early intervention is also a great opportunity to begin to explore, to talk about how should we behave toward each other.”
The province is providing funding for the panel review and Warner says it must lead to solutions, not just for the Hamilton public board, but all boards grappling with bullying.
“It’s actually to me quite devastating the extent of the harm that I’m hearing reported. It’s so serious I think it would be impossible not to act,” he says. “To let this continue, to brush it off, I think would cause such a disaster.”