The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

economist sunsuntribune community saturday oct 4 2003 gala brings hope to regions abused by usa queen staff writer they occupy the two last spots on the york region abuse program waiting list officially they are jcnown as cases 25 and 26 she is a threeyearold toddler hes a sixyearold boy the children have never met but they share a common bond the trauma of being sexually abused by a person they trusted the girl was sexually abused by her babysitter the teenaged son of her parents friends her parents began to suspect their daughter had been victim ized when she suddenly began cry ing uncontrollably at bath time and begging not to take her clothes off a visit to the family doctor con firmed she had been sexually abused the boy was sexually assaulted by his uncle whom the child loved spending time withbecause many of the visits involved trips to the cottage to go fishing but then the trips began to go wrong the uncle began fondling the boy squr main message is abuse is not going away there are real kids behind the numbers the frightened child finally asked his parents why his favourite uncle touched him that way yraps fundraisinggala last year helped the agency drastically reduce its waiting list to 26 from 40 but executive director lynn huizer said tragic stories of the children still on the list prove more needs to be done to help sexually abused youngsters on oct 17 yrap will host its seventh annual evening of hope gala which features a mardi gras theme x organizers hope to raise 50000 which would allow the agency to eliminate its present waiting list our main message is abuse is not going away ms huizer said we really need more resources to be directed to deal with the kids suffering from this abuse there are real kids behind thenumbers staff photobill roberts an evening of hope gala chairperson sue flanagan volunteer karen lucarelliand vicechairperson anne randall are preparing for the oct 17 event at le pare in thornhill which features a mardi gras theme ms huizer stressed sexual abuse affects more than the assaulted child its a problem that affects us all the families are hugely impacted the childrens friends at school are hugely impacted she said we know if we intervene early we can make a huge difference if its left 80 per cent of adults who have been sexually assaulted will have mental health issues and some will attempt suicide according to yrap one in four girls and one in five boys- will be sexually abused before their 18th birthdays in 200203 the agency treated 1 14 children and 9 1 families which officials say is a small fraction of sexual abuse incidents in york region more than half the children on the waiting list are under seven between 85 and 90 per cent of victims know their abuser well and the agency offers a wide range of services including programs for victims families sex offenders and groups more than 25000 york school children have viewed abuse prevention plays to teach them how to stay safe from all forms of abuse yrap also provides a court support program to assist victims and witnesses through the legal system the cost of the gala is 125 per person and will feature entertain ment by the legends of rock and roll dinner and dancing open bar and live and silent auctions the event will beheld at le pare dining and banquet hall in thornhill for more information or to order tickets call lynn rush at 9058303040 eitt 302 internet bullying increasing concern in schools by simone joseph staff writer do you think jane is ugly do you think she is a loser how about bob do you think he is fat check off yes or no this is a madeup sample of the types of questions students can answer about their classmates at studentmade websites this type of internet bullying is a disturbing and increasing activi ty principals and teachers said in a recent survey of four vaughan ele mentary schools the bullying can come in many forms a studentled cairfpaign of nasty email messages to a class mate a website filled with mean comments about a student a site where you can vote for the biggest loser a chat room or instant mes sage conversation where the topic is how much of a geek a student is its usually gossipy slanderous types of things about students said myrna beck principal of glen shields public school kids are more sophisticated today five years ago it wasnt a problem glen shields is one of four vaughan elementary schools whose grades 4 to 8 students teach ers and principals completed a sur vey on bullying in january 2003 the other schools were st joseph the worker catholic elementary school yorkhill public school and divine mercy catholic elementary school the schools had volunteered to participate in an antibullying pilot project called together we can stop bullying which started may 2003 and will finish at the end of this month the schools were not cho sen because of high rates of bully ing surveys before and after the pro gram are used to measure changes in students knowledge and behav iour a report describing the pre-pro- gram survey results will go to the regions health and emergency medical services committee internet bullying is virtually impossible to trace ms beck said students can hide their identi- ties by using pseudonyms in chat rooms and making up email addresses using computers from home often the school finds out about the bullying because the student being targeted or the victims friend will print out a copy of the email or website and bring it into the office this type of bullying can be par ticularly painful for students because as opposed to a ofte-on- one taunt the information on the internet is easy to access said dr glenn dipasquale chief psycholo gist with the york region district school board its publicits open to the world that can be very upsetting he has had teachers and princi pals call him about internet bully ing from across the region online bullying can also be easi er to do than bullying in person said cathy jaynes manager of school services with the regions health department and one of the authors of thereport you are writing down words and firing them off it is not as per sonal thanks to the antibullying pilot project at glen shields which included a conference at the school workshops videos and dis cussions on bullying ms beck has seen an improvement in students understanding of the issue students have responsibility theyll use the term victim they will use the term bystander we all now have a common lan guage ms beck said students understand if they wit ness bullying they have a responsi bility to do something about it and were taught strategies for dealing with bullying at the school confer ence she said last year a few incidents of internet bullying were reported at the school but so far this year there have been none she said in the past york region has offered antibullying presentations when schools requested it but these presentations are not effec tive in changing behaviour in the long term according to a region report so health services staff are working with school boards to incorporate bullying isues into classroom curriculum two evening sessions for parents of students in the four pilot schools will be available this month v one session will focus on internet bullying and the other will focus on parenting skills for victim ized children and children who bully for rgore information on york regions together we can stop bullying program con tact york region health services health connection at 18003615653