Another family has contacted the NDP with a story of student-on-student sexualized violence.

NDP Leader Kate White shared that development last Thursday afternoon in the legislature

White later told reporters she is frustrated, having thought a policy would have been prepared by now to deal with such cases in the schools. 

“I really thought we could get to ‘yes,’ ‘yes,’; the Department of Education will develop a policy specifically to deal with sexual assault,” she said.

“You know, student-on-student violence. I thought we could be there. I really did.

“And the minister’s comments today were deeply, deeply upsetting to me,” White told reporters, referring to Education Minister Jeanie McLean. 

White said the second family came forward in the week following her first questions to the minister on the subject last month. 

As the Star reported March 24, White first expressed concern earlier that week on the topic after a former student came forward with her story of abuse and a lack of support from her former school or department officials. 

Over the last three weeks in the House, White has pushed for a policy involving student-on-student sexualized violence. 

“When a serious incident happens and no policies or guidelines are in place to dictate how school administrations should deal with it, one should be created. It just makes sense,” she said.

“The government learns of a gap in the system and then fixes it. We shouldn’t have to insist that the minister take steps to protect students; yet, in this case of students who have been sexually assaulted by fellow students, that is exactly what is happening,” the NDP leader said.

“This should have been a priority the minute she (McLean) was made aware of the problem, but it hasn’t been made a priority,” said White. 

McLean told MLAs the safety of children in her department’s care is taken very seriously. 

“There is a need to proactively and responsively address concerns of student-to-student harm,” she said.

“There is a clear expectation that all members of school communities must not engage in bullying, abuse, or other unacceptable behaviours. 

“The matters that the member (White) is talking about are criminal offences,” the minister added.

“It is a criminal offence to sexually assault another person, and so, yes, we take this very seriously.

“Peer-to-peer harm is taken very seriously, and we commit to examining the need for a standalone policy to address this issue,” McLean told the legislature.

“I have stated this: if a serious incident occurs in a school, we follow emergency plans and response protocols.

“I think that it is not helpful to have members of this legislative assembly speak in ways that will — shame victims and that will prevent them from coming forward.

“It is our responsibility to take these situations seriously,” McLean said. 

Discussing the minister’s statements, White told reporters that none of the NDP’s questions are asked in the House without consent from the affected individual or their families. 

She also said it was McLean’s response that was shameful. 

“I think it’s really important to say that there is no shame in being like a victim. There’s no shame,” White said. 

“Asking a question based on someone’s experience is not taking shame and putting it on their shoulders. The minister’s response was shameful. It was incredibly disrespectful,” White told reporters. 

McLean said the government has done a tremendous amount of work creating a new system that was not in place when the Liberals came into government in late 2016. 

“Our education system was very neglected when we came in,” she said.

“We have definitely taken very serious steps. We do have the policies and procedures in place around the student protection policy,” the minister told the House. 

“We have a lot of work that has been done on the safer schools action plan, and I know a tremendous amount of work still needs to be done.”

The government is now looking beyond the safer schools action plan for the next steps around safety in Yukon schools to further look at policies and procedures to address any shortfalls, she added. 

“The truth of the matter is that until they write a policy that clearly lays out for administrators and schools across the territory, there will be kids who will get trapped in these cycles, where schools don’t know how to support them,” White told reporters. “And that’s the problem.”    

White added that she is persistent – and won’t stop her pursuit of the subject until a policy is written.