When Bad Things Happen at Good Schools

  Janyce Lastman and I have previously collaborated on several podcasts. So when she approached me about this one, I was glad because, with recent news headlines related to happenings in a well private school in Toronto, this is more timely of a topic than ever. Janyce offered to help parents explain, contextualize and cope with incidents such as those in the news and to help parents learn how to reduce the chances that their children will be subject to extreme bullying, hazing and abuse in school going forward. In addition, I asked her to lend her expertise in regards to exploring different kinds of schools, how the culture of each is determined and by whom. Over the course of this episode, you will learn more about: How to tell the difference between a "good" versus not as "good" school Whether private always means better The difference in culture from one school to the next Who or what determines this culture Whether or not there is a difference in the culture between same sex or even same religion schools versus more heterogeneous schools Bullying/hazing at schools and whether this is more common in certain schools/programs than others How parents can help to explain bad incidents at school to their kids and how they can cope In addition to listening and learning from this podcast, Janyce offers the following links to great resources: Canadian Centre for Child Protection She particularly likes: Kids in the Know And for teens: NeedHelpNow plus Cybertip This FREE and really well written materials hard copy by order (same organization) And free downloadable material She says that the following is also a great site for overall media smarts which addresses some of the issues discussed in our podcast: MediaSmarts