School discipline policies are under review in Weyburn following a bullying incident involving students from Weyburn Junior High School last year.

The incident, which involved a group of girls beating a fellow student in Jubilee Park after school last June, showed the school board that the current codes of conduct need to be reviewed and made to be more comprehensive, says education director Jan Chell.

"Every school will be on a different schedule," Chell said.

The school board would like to see parents involved in the policy review, but how that takes place will be up to each school. At the junior high and high school levels there would probably be some student involvement taking place through the student councils, Chell said.

Student violence has always been an issue at schools but how schools deal with these outbursts has had to change over the years.

"I think we have to have ways to assist these kids and help change their behaviour. I believe in zero tolerance and zero rejection," Chell said.

Currently there is a misbehaviour policy in effect at the schools, but the schools will have to determine how they will deal with violent behaviour.

"We want to have programming that prevents violence," Chell said.

At Weyburn Junior High, the staff is reviewing all of the school policies by examining policies from other schools and comparing with their own, said principal Terri Morgan.

The school is looking at everything from the dress code to dealing with students who are late for class. One of the programs that the school uses is the Second Step program. It was originally used in the elementary schools but now has a focus on grades 7, 8 and 9. The program teaches students how to deal with conflict and anger and help teach positive leadership skills, says Morgan.

"It promotes the need of empathy in the students," Morgan said.

In the future Morgan sees the potential for a peer conciliation process, where students would go to their peers as a first step in counselling.

Many Weyburn schools have applied to become members of the League of Peaceful Schools. The program is still aimed at the elementary level, but Morgan hopes that it will extend to the junior high level.

Karyn Fleck Zepick currently works with students from kindergarten to Grade 6 teaching social skills. She also does follow-ups on students who have moved on to junior high school.

The main role is to teach classroom survival, which is done through "Showing Caring About Myself and Others," or SCAMOs as they are known to students, said Zepick.

The students in class use their behaviour to get points which go toward classroom goals. SCAMOs are handed out to students who participate well with others and who behave in class, she explained.

Zepick also works with pull-out groups who need particular attention to developing better social behaviour.

The groups work on a one-on-one basis and go through the process of how to make new friends, how to be a good friend and how to manage anger.

"I have seen some positive improvements," Zepick said.

At the junior high school level, Zepick works as a co-ordinator with the counselling department and on an individual basis with some of the students who have moved on.