On of my additional responsibilities, as a result of being your elected public school trustee, is to sit on a provincial advisory committee investigating the effects of violence in the media. The committee is comprised of representatives from the teacher unions, police, faculties of education and trustee associations, both public and Catholic.

I must admit that, for someone who confines his personal television viewing to the news and sports channels, what I saw and read at our last meeting appalled me. Committee members viewed clips from a wrestling channel that featured male and female “performers” in the ring together. The abuse that was hurled at and heaped upon the women was sickening. However, the more disturbing fact to me, was that this “entertainment” is readily available on regular cable channels to our youngest students. We also listened to, and viewed the lyrics of, music that our students regularly dial into; music that contained the messages that abuse of women, gun usage and bullying is acceptable in our society.We didn’t even try to venture into what is currently available on the Internet to our children, as they freely “surf the web”. I came home that afternoon feeling truly sickened by what I had witnessed.

As an educator (and parent/grandparent) I am truly concerned about the effect that the exposure to this level of violence will have upon our children’s behaviour both at school and within society in general. As a committee, we received very credible Canadian research that documents the negative impact that this is having upon our youth.

I choose, perhaps naively, to believe that the vast majority of our society, if they heard or saw these images, would be equally repulsed. I cannot for a moment believe that the vast majority of parents willingly allow their children to be exposed to this type of violence. So, that leads to the obvious question (for me), “Do parents truly know and understand the level of violence that their children are exposed to, on a daily basis, within the media?” If the answer is “No”, then what can we do, as a school system to assist parents in dealing with this very real problem? Here are just a few suggestions provided by those in the know:

 Watch TV with your child and let them know that you don’t like violence on TV or in any media,

 Be a role model,

 Don’t buy toys or video games that promote violence, and

 Let grandparents, sitters, neighbours and parents of your child’s playmate know about your views.

I would be pleased to hear your views on this issue. It is one that I know will take our combined efforts, over many years, to turn into a successful campaign and a shift in societal attitudes. As a school system, we need to work with the parents and our community partners to deal with this very real issue.

Contact Information: Should you need to contact your Trustee for the Town of Orangeville, you can do so by phone (home office940-0279; Guelph office519-822-4420, ext. 735) or e-mail at bob.borden@ugdsb.on.ca. Also, you can visit the Board’s web site at www.ugdsb.on.ca and read the highlights of each Board meeting.