News

:

, ,

Council calls on Anti-Bullying Taskforce, federal schools to work together on bullying

Six Nations Elected Council say they were not made aware of the time, location or subject matter that the Canada Border Services would be entering into the community during some time on Nov. 15. Photo courtesy of Six Nations of the Grand River.
Andrew Dow - CJKS - Ohsweken • ON | 27-01-2023
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on email
Share on print

Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) is asking the Six Nations Anti-Bullying Taskforce and the Six Nations Federal Schools to work together to help combat bullying, a continuing issue within the local schools.

The Anti-Bullying Taskforce which was created in late 2019 is an organization that aims to stop bullying and lateral violence within the community. The Six Nations Federal Schools are administered through Indigenous Services Canada and currently the five elementary schools that educate youth on Six Nations.

Talks with the two organizations came after the Anti-Bullying Taskforce was recently seeking approval from SNEC for their Terms of Reference so the group can move forward with its mandate.

Coun. Helen Miller questioned if the taskforce would be able to be successful without co-operation from the federal schools and their Director Travis Anderson.

"It's not going to work unless we don't have the principals and teachers on board. So we need to talk to Travis (Anderson) because it's not going to work if they're not on board," Miller said.

"That's where it all starts, when people's children get bullied, they go to the principal" she added.

Taskforce Lead, Jen Mt. Pleasant said the group has tried to connect with Travis Anderson but have not been successful yet and said that she would welcome more correspondence between the two groups. Currently the Six Nations Federal School's have one representative sitting on the core team of the taskforce.

Coun. Audrey Powless-Bomberry, a former educator of over 40 years, said that the engagement plan needs to be worked on.

"We work better one-to-one, so the more that we can see and talk about to the people, the better. So I think the engagement strategy has to be worked on here, as well as how you involved all the other groups, that has to be worked out as well," she said.

"Communication is the biggest thing and this is our chance to fix things," Powless-Bomberry added.

SNEC approved the Terms of Reference for the Six Nations Anti-Bullying Taskforce during the Jan. 24 general council meeting and the group will attend council at a later date with Six Nations Federal School Director Travis Anderson.

Listen to the full CJKS story below:

Download Audio