P.E.I. Public Schools Branch offers students another way to report negative incidents

Public Schools Branch students on Prince Edward Island have a new online tool to report incidents that negatively impact them or the school climate.

The Online Student Incident Report is intended for "non-emergencies" and is monitored on school days between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Tracy Beaulieu, acting director of the Public Schools Branch, said other methods of reporting incidents, including in-person, are still encouraged.

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"Anything that is really pressing, anything that is really urgent, should be reported in person right away," she said in an interview with CBC News: Compass host Louise Martin.

"If it is something that they feel that it would benefit a school from being aware of something, then the online gives them that opportunity to allow administrators to have an idea that something is happening that they may not have known about before either. So it gives you the opportunity to have a little bit of a closer lens on some of those areas."

The initiative began last fall on recommendations from P.E.I.'s Office of the Child and Youth Advocate. It was used as a pilot within the Three Oaks family of schools, and expanded this year to all 56 schools in the PSB.

Examples of incidents that could be reported, cited on the PSB website, include bullying, discrimination, drugs, harassment, homophobia, invasion of privacy, racism, sexual misconduct, theft, threats, vandalism, verbal abuse, violence, and use of a weapon.

Students can choose to remain anonymous when reporting an incident.

"We're always promoting students to be able to share any incidents that are making them feel kind of unsafe or just having a negative impact on their school culture or school environment," Beaulieu said.

We wanted to make sure that we had students having that voice in a way that is comfortable for them.— Tracy Beaulieu

"We encouraged it to be done verbally all the time. However, there wasn't that online component to it and we wanted to make sure that we had students having that voice in a way that is comfortable for them."

Beaulieu said the program appears to be working well, and will be reviewed at the end of the year to see if it can be improved.

"We have had some instances where we might have a few reports in a week, sometimes there's none on the online, but that just reinforces that a lot of students are actually still going to their trusted adult. And again, that's what we always want them to do."

A spokesperson for P.E.I.'s French Language School Board said they are considering a similar reporting tool for their schools.