After a recent RCMP town hall delved into the issue of teenagers gathering to fight at a local 7-11, Airdrie City council has put forward a notice of motion in hopes of combatting bullying and putting a committee together to deal with the issue.
Coun. Heather Spearman said there has been a “large influx of visibility” on much of the bullying events that have gone on locally.
“While this is a tale as old as time, what we are not seeing at the present moment is a coming together of all of the stakeholders,” she said when introducing the notice of motion.
“We are hearing different opinions on how things are being approached, but at the end of the day, it’s about the kids.”
Spearman said since the town hall was hosted on Nov. 1, she has been getting calls from families and hearing stories from parents about their kids who are getting bullied daily.
“They are approaching the schools and not feeling those things are being resolved,” she said. “They are not feeling that there is accountability. They want to see leadership from their local representatives.”
Coun. Al Jones said he’s in favour of the notice of motion.
“This community has tried all kinds of things, something has to stick eventually,” he said.
Coun. Ron Chapman agreed, adding the time has come to look more seriously at bullying in general. He brought up altercations that have occurred in local businesses as a result of differing views surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic as another example of recent bullying.
“Is that bullying when people are yelling at staff because they don’t want to show their [proof of vaccination], is that bullying?” he said. “Is this going to be a big project? Yes, it is, but it is an Airdrie solution. We are Airdrie, lets get this looked after.”
Mayor Peter Brown said he looks forward to continuing the discussion, but added he believes there is a broader scope that should be addressed.
“If we are truly going to protect everyone in the community, that is a grand scope,” he said. “It makes me a bit nervous because we are setting these expectations that we are somehow are going to eliminate.”
Jones, who said he has spent a great deal of time familiarizing himself with the recent surge in fights at the 7-11 in Bayside, said he visited the area on three lunch hours and two after-school time slots to understand and witness what was happening.
“One thing that becomes very apparent is these are teenagers,” he said. “The violence and the chaos we have heard about isn’t going to happen when an authority figure is there.
“For the most part, they were just kids being kids. I think this is about a lot more than just bullying. I think it is about learning to respect each other.”
Coun. Tina Petrow made a motion for council to direct administration to bring back information on actions taken to date to combat bullying. Her motion also calls for the City to investigate options to create a community stakeholder committee or working group for the purpose of sharing information and building strategies to tackle the issue.
The motion was unanimously approved.
Jordan Stricker, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @jaystrickz
