Education Minister Chester Gillan announced today that the second annual Verbal Abuse Prevention Week will be held during the first week of October on Prince Edward Island.
"It is our hope that Verbal Abuse Prevention Week will become an annual event during the first week of October," the Minister said. "Verbal abuse is something we are becoming more aware of and the Department of Education is committed to heightening its profile and working towards its elimination in our schools, in our school yards and in society."
Gillan commended the work of Islander Tami Martell who almost single-handedly brought awareness of the issue of verbal abuse into our homes and made Islanders consider the effects it may have on students.
Martell welcomed the news from Minister Gillan. "This is what we have been working towards," said Martell, a mother of six from Sturgeon. "Verbal abuse will not go away unless we continue to address it and the negative atmosphere it creates in schools and in the community at large."
The Department's Diversity Education Standing Committee has been meeting on a regular basis since November 1998. The Committee recently recommended to the Premier and the Department of Education that Verbal Abuse Prevention Week become an annual event. The first prevention week was held in September 1999.
"The week is designed to promote safety and non-violent ways of acting in schools and the community," said Myra Thorkelson, chair of the Diversity Education Standing Committee. "By focusing our attention on verbal abuse during the first few weeks of classes, we hope to influence students to stop and think about their words and actions and choose better ways of solving problems." Thorkelson said the awareness week will be a good fit with other awareness activities and programs that schools and communities may choose to promote throughout the school year.
The Diversity Education Standing Committee will be working with other education stakeholders and interested groups and individuals in the coming months to plan for Verbal Abuse Prevention Week 2000.