By CLARK KIM, Insidetoronto.com

With the year coming to an end, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) reported on its progress on the action plan to make all local public schools safer for students.

The actions implemented by the board were from the recommendations made in the January report by the School Community Safety Advisory Panel that investigated the safety conditions at schools following the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute. Read more...

"Over 80 per cent of the report's recommendations have been implemented," said Gerry Connelly, TDSB education director, at the final regular board meeting last Wednesday evening.

Connelly noted that 94 out of the 126 recommendations in the school safety report pertained specifically to the school board.

"We have addressed or are in the process of addressing 74 of those particular recommendations," she said.

Some of the recommendations currently being addressed were outlined in the school board's own recently released report titled, Shaping a Culture of Respect in Our Schools: Promoting Safe and Healthy Relationships.

They include the following.

* Ongoing proactive work with the Toronto Police Service in the area of Peer Sexual Assault

* Reviewing of the Child Abuse and Neglect Policy and developing a new operational procedure on Peer Sexual Assault

* Child and Youth Counsellors are piloting gender-based programming in some schools

* Supports for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered students through the Triangle Program

* Education, awareness and training to students and staff through the Human Sexuality program

"Safety continues to be the hallmark of what we do," Connelly assured. "This is indeed an ongoing activity."

But St. Paul's Trustee Josh Matlow wasn't convinced the school board had implemented as many of the recommendations that staff claimed to have done.

"We didn't have the funding to implement many of the recommendations," said Matlow. "Notwithstanding the excellent work of staff, this document is a lot of rubbish."

Many of his fellow trustees took exception to Matlow's remarks including Toronto-Danforth Trustee Cathy Dandy who applauded the work of school staff.