D’Arcy McGee School Parent Involvement Evening Fosters Digital Citizenship Says Organizer @SuzyBatista

There are so many success stories in Toronto that don’t get media attention. D’Arcy McGee school Parent Involvement Night is one of them! The School Resource Officers of 13 Division Toronto Police Service “Officer Terri and Officer Meaghan” along with school principal Thomas Bonic in collaboration with the leadership of the school’s parent council led by parent Suzy Batista learned about many topics at their annual Parent Involvement Evening on May 16, 2012 at the school. Topics like how to stop online bullying, to how to manage an emergency in their school, who to go to with a concern of a the well being of a fellow student..how to Leave Out Violence, and staying clear of gangs were all discussed over fresh fruit, pizza, water and 50 parents, students, staff and police officers.

The following is a thank you letter sent to Staff Sergeant Michael Matic of 13 Division after the event by the organizer. Truly, the thanks is from us, the police, to the amazing community of the school and Suzy and her team’s leadership. People like Joanne Dilio and many more.. who give of their time, their expertise on a regular basis to enhance community success and safety.

THANK YOU
On behalf of the Catholic School Advisory Committee at D’Arcy McGee Catholic School, I would like to thank you for your partnership in this year’s Annual Parent Involvement Evening. The Event was held on May 16th 2013 and your efforts made all the difference in the success of educating both the parents within our community as well as the youth of our beloved school.

Too often parents are misinformed about the social web and will shut their kids out of it completely, only to discover that they are finding other ways to log on. In this day and age, as parents we need to take an active role in our child’s online life to ensure they are on the path toward “digital citizenship” and protected from inappropriate content and people. By the end of the presentations I was confident that the parents had the tools they needed in order to help protect their children online and the students at D’Arcy McGee became WWK (Web Wise Kids). The Officers were extremely informative and the dynamic teaching style of the presenters enabled them to connect with the audience. The evening would not have been such a success without the guidance, support and dedication from the staff at 13 Division.

Once again thank you for your time and participation at our event. We look forward to continuing to work with you in the future.

Sincerely,

Suzy A. Batista
CSAC Chair for
D’Arcy McGee Catholic School

As promised, we did a hangout on air for the talk. We were honoured to have community volunteer Nadia Fordham participate, and give cues from the back on our audio quality. Nadia is learning how to use hangouts on air so that she can participate remotely in future events!

It was also a great honour to meet Arys Dejan of the organization “Leave Out Violence”. His clear message of school and community violence prevention was shared and valued at the meeting. Click here for more details on LOVE

Below are some reference documents for reference of this evening designed to be a refresher for those in attendance and a means to watch and learn for those who couldn’t make it. Thanks everyone for a fun and successful event!

Video of presentation:

Gang presentation by Sergeant Doug Minor May 18, 2011 at Parent Involvement evening


Video streaming by Ustream

Reference Document to Facebook privacy settings:

Key message presentation “Success And Safety Using Relationships and Technology” of Constable Scott Mills

What is the law about social media presentation by lawyer Eric Roher