In June 2012, Premier Christy Clark announced the 10-point ERASE Bullying Strategy, the most comprehensive anti-bullying and threat assessment strategy in Canada. To date, significant progress has been made in implementing and advancing the strategy throughout B.C.

The 10 elements of B.C.'s ERASE Bullying Strategy announced in June include:

• A five-year, multi-level training program for 15,000 educators and community partners to help them proactively identify and address threats.

• New online tools, including a reporting tool for kids to report bullying anonymously.

• Dedicated safe school co-ordinators in every school district.

• Stronger codes of conduct for schools.

• Provincial guidelines for threat assessments.

• New online resources for parents.

• Formal protocols to guide and co-ordinate the work of school and community partners.

• A provincial advisory committee with representatives from police, school and social agency partners.

• Focusing one of the existing six provincial teacher professional development days on antibullying.

• Anti-bullying and threat assessment training for pre-service teachers.

Since then:

• Safe School Co-ordinators are in place in all 60 school districts.

• School boards must ensure one professional development day (Pro-D day) is focused on preventing bullying and cultivating safe and caring school communities.

• The ERASE Bullying Reporting Tool for youth to anonymously report bullying now is available in both English and French.

• Erasebullying.ca - a new website with tips and resources for parents and youth, is up and running.

• Take U out of Bullying, an online forum for students to discuss bullying, is in development.

• Within the next few months, all 60 B.C. school districts will have completed the first year of the five-year, multi-level training for 15,000 educators and community partners to proactively identify and address threats.

• The Provincial Advisory Committee on Bullying and Violence Prevention (PACBVP) - with representatives from police, school and social agency partners - will be developing provincial threat assessment and formal information-sharing protocols.

• The Ministry of Education has started discussions with post-secondary institutions about integrating anti-bullying and threat assessment training into their programs for teachers-in-training.

• The Ministry of Education is working with education partners to enhance school district Codes of Conduct with strengthened language consistent with existing laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of "race, colour, ancestry, place of origin, religion, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, age, sex or sexual orientation."

Contact:

Government Communications and Public Engagement
Ministry of Education
250 356-5963