Mr. Speaker, it is no great secret that acts of violence occur in our schools although I am sure we all wish that were not the case. Sadly, every day there are children who go home victims of violence at school. It can happen from their first day of kindergarten to their last day of high school. It is a problem we need to address as a nation.
We have seen what can happen when the problem is taken to the extreme. We only have to remember the terrible events at the high school in Taber, Alberta. We also know the tragedy that lesser acts, the ones that are not headline makers, have on Canada's children. It is a terrible thing when a child's biggest academic worry is that of being a victim of violence at school.
For many years we have been ensuring there are consequences of violence. There are many schools with zero tolerance policies. While this is certainly a great step forward it is time we did more. Never resorting to violence should be something that every child knows, but we should go further and teach every child that violence should never even be considered as a resolution to problems.
Prevention of a problem like this is more valuable than just having consequences for it.