Math101 · Independent Ontario learning library
Immediate danger
Call emergency services for immediate danger. Ontario advises contacting police when conduct involves criminal behaviour such as sexual assault, hate-motivated incidents, sextortion, weapons, or a threat to safety in the community. Do not confront a dangerous person yourself.
If intimate images or exploitation are involved, do not forward or repeatedly screenshot illegal/harmful material. Seek adult, platform, school, police, or specialized support promptly.
Bullying and conflict are not identical
Ontario describes bullying as aggressive behaviour that may repeat or occur once in a real or perceived power imbalance. Conflict can involve people with roughly equal power who disagree. Harmful conflict still requires response, but the intervention may differ.
Do not make the student prove the perfect label before seeking safety.
First conversation
- Stay calm enough to listen.
- Thank the student for telling.
- Ask what happened and what they fear will happen next.
- Ask what outcome would help them feel safer.
- Do not promise secrecy you cannot keep when safety is involved.
- Do not immediately message the other child or family in anger.
Preserve facts
Record dates, locations/platforms, exact words/actions, witnesses, prior reports, school impact, and available screenshots/URLs. Keep material private and secure. Distinguish what the student directly experienced from what someone else reported.
Report safely
Ontario requires boards to have bullying prevention/intervention policies and safe reporting procedures that minimize reprisal. Depending on the situation, report to a trusted teacher, principal/vice-principal, or the board’s anonymous/reporting route.
Ask:
- Who is investigating?
- What immediate safety plan applies?
- How can the student report recurrence?
- What supports are available for the targeted student, witnesses, and student who caused harm?
- When will the school follow up?
- What is the board route if the response is insufficient?
Privacy may limit information about another student’s discipline, but the school can explain the plan to protect and support the affected student.
Cyberbullying off school property
Ontario policy recognizes that online conduct outside school can affect school climate. Report the connection and impact. Also use platform reporting, privacy/security controls, and police or specialized services when criminal or exploitative conduct may be involved.
Support after the report
Monitor attendance, sleep, physical symptoms, isolation, schoolwork, and online behaviour. Ask whether a trusted-adult check-in, safe route, seating/class change, counselling, academic adjustment, or another support is appropriate. Avoid making the targeted student carry the whole burden of changing.
Students can contact Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868 or text CONNECT to 686868.
Should a student fight back physically?
Prioritize leaving, getting to safety, and telling an adult. Immediate self-protection situations are complex; a general webpage cannot assess them. Do not plan retaliation.
What if the school response does not stop it?
Follow up with the principal using the documented incidents and agreed steps, then use the board’s published escalation process, including the assigned superintendent/safe-schools route where applicable.
