Despite the best efforts of local school boards in Hamilton and Halton to promote a strong anti-bullying message in its schools, it’s a societal problem that doesn’t appear to be going away.

Particularly disturbing is that incidents of bullying are no longer the exclusive domain of high-school-aged youths.

In a recent incident reported in Halton, a six-year-old boy was chased through a schoolyard by five nine-year-old boys, two of whom reportedly used electronic devices to record portions of the attack, which included verbal taunts and the victim being kicked after he fell against a fence.

Written apologies have been presented to the victimized child and each attacker has served a two-day suspension. A healing-circle-like exercise involving all has taken place, but the burning question remains: how can we prevent the next schoolyard incident?

Each November, most schools participate in a variety of Bullying Prevention Week activities, including special announcements, contests to create anti-bullying posters and special guests who explain why bullying is socially unacceptable.

As a society, we have come to understand the serious psychological damage bullying causes. Some victims choose suicide over facing their bully another day. Others, including the lone gunman in the 2009 Taber, Alberta shootings, choose to lash out in extreme acts of violence.

Occasionally, there are small signs the anti-bullying message is getting through. However, when Grade 4 students take the extra step of recording the assault of a child three years their junior, it’s both disturbing and an indication we have to do more than talk about the problem in order to put a stop to it.

Today, bullying is affecting our youngest children despite the anti-bullying message schools work so hard to disseminate.

We join Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn in supporting Bill 13, the Accepting Schools Act, which proposes tougher consequences for bullying and hate-motivated actions against other students. The proposed legislation is expected to be debated as early as this month at Queen’s Park.

We believe instituting stronger deterrents – up to and including expulsion from the school system where such anti-social behaviour has taken place – sends a strong message: bullying will no longer be tolerated.