An Anglophone East District Education Councillor for Riverview High School is concerned for the current mental health of students and teachers.
Duane MacDonald has heard from parents, who say the transition back to full time learning in September was a challenging one, “It has been very difficult. A lot of weight is now on the teachers shoulders. Students are not liking the full time right away. They wish there was some kind of reintroduction. The COVID year has really set them back.”
He says, “Mental health, what used to be something minor is now traumatic for the students. I’m sure this is also happening in other high schools. What used to be five per cent of the population being problematic, is now like 17 per cent.”
Riverview High School recently added a third Guidance Counsellor, but MacDonald says already, all three are booked solid for the next two or three weeks.
“There’s no room for any error. if anyone stops in, it has to be for emergencies only,” MacDonald says.
He also expressed recent concerns over the bad rap Riverview now has for bullying. MacDonald blames social media, “Unfortunately, social media has really blown up the whole bullying thing. What is teasing or what is pestering? It seems like everything is classified to be bullying and they’re really having a hard time getting around that mentality of reclassifying what it is and really is. It is not all bullying. Sometimes, it’s just a mean word that they might say, but it’s not necessarily bullying.”
He is hoping a program called Restorative Justice may be able to help, “I have a friend, a retired RCMP officer, Sergeant Ken Smith who specialized in restorative Justice in the RCMP. He has reached out, and has reached out to Riverview High School and will be meeting with him next week. All of the guidance counsellors are really excited with getting together with him and perhaps getting a Restorative Justice program up and running and perhaps spreading that around to the district. It is a awesome approach to how we handle discipline in the schools.”
