I'm in need of assistance and felt this was a good forum for excellent
feedback. I'm working with a school council conmmittee on
harassment/bullying in the K-8 grade level. We have viewed the individual
school report data on the "Region of Waterloo's Youth Survey 1997" prepared
by The Waterloo Region Community Safety and Crime Prevention Council. The
individual results showed a pattern of high percentages of affirmative
responses to the question "Has someone ever made fun of you?" in the class,
halls outside etc.
This committee wishes to rework this question to get a better/more specific
idea of what is involved in "being made fun of" and if we are looking at
childhood bantering (a sample survey had some written responses brushing off
the "being made fun of" as "no big deal")  vs a hurtful impact.
 Our dilemna is this; How do we formulate a good survey question to get at
whether we are dealing with an issue of significant proportions or not. We
will be drafting surveys for primary(1-3),junior(4-6), senior(7-8),staff and
parents.
I appreciate any and all suggestions to assist this energetic group of
parents/school personnel to promote a healthy school climate.


Muriel Vandepol
Public Health Nurse, Youth Health Program
Waterloo Community Health Department
Cambridge
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