Province Funds Anti-Bullying Program

BURNABY -- A classroom visit by the Premier at Morley Elementary in Burnaby is a little out of the ordinary, but an infant stopping by is not. The kindergarten students are enrolled in the 'Roots of Empathy' program. Learning about and interacting with babies is a key component. "Empathy is the ultimate human trait, we understand how the other person feels" says program founder Mary Gordon.

The goal is to prevent bullying, the ugly incidents like a brawl between teenaged girls in Nanaimo posted to Youtube earlier this year, after one of them was lured to the scene. "The $800,000 we're spending today is going to do so much to prevent bullying in the future" says Premier Christy Clark.

Monday's announcement by Clark is being applauded by a UVic expert on childhood bullying and victimization. But Bonnie Leadbeater stresses this is a good start, not a total solution. "These programs early on won't do the job if they're not continued. The kinds of issues kids encounter from 1st to 8th grade are different from what they would've encountered in pre-school and kindergarten."

It should be noted the Liberals cut funding to the program in 2009, after spending $1.45 million on it the year before. Their smaller $800,000/year commitment now is nonetheless being welcomed by its founder. "What this means is we will go from 239 programs we currently have up to 300 this year. We used to have 670 Roots of Empathy programs" says Gordon.

Premier Clark says parents deserve to know their children are safe in school, and 'Roots of Empathy' will help accomplish that goal.


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