Stamping out bullying

Although Riley Kant said she and her friends aren't subjected to bullying, she knows of students at Bishop Alexander Carter Catholic Secondary School who are.

That's why the Grade 12 student decided to get involved in a Red Cross program called Beyond the Hurt.

“I think it is quite a big problem, because a lot of students are affected by it,” 17-year-old Kant said. “I've seen it around the school. You see people who hang out in the background. It's not nice to see that.”

Kant and nine other students at the Hanmer-area school were trained by Red Cross workers last September, and then put together oral presentations on bullying for the school's Grade 9 students. They also sold pink T-shirts Nov. 18, during Bullying Awareness Week.

The school's anti-bullying program recently caught the attention of Minister of Education Laurel Broten.

Bishop Alexander school students, along with Loretto Abbey Catholic Secondary School in Toronto, were recently invited to participate in a teleconference Feb. 8 to talk about their anti-bullying initiatives with the minister.

“I found it a really positive experience,” Kant said.

“People get to learn about what we're doing, and they get to know we're not just a school sitting here and watching our students get bullied. We're actually doing something about it, and want things to get better. We want students to have a positive experience here.”

Heather Duguay, a guidance counsellor at the school and one of the organizers of the Beyond the Hurt program, said the two schools involved in the teleconference learned from hearing about each other's anti-bullying programs.

“We were able to gain insight and ideas from them,” she said.

Shelley Raymond, an English and religion teacher at the school who also helped to organize the program, said she knows bullying is happening at the school, but very often it's difficult to spot.

“Very often it is because they won't do it in front of us,” she said.

“Sometimes if you can get the students to trust you and feel confident and comfortable with you, they will share things with you. If they come to me and talk to me about (bullying), I will find a way to get them to open up to our vice-principal about it, and we can help them with the problem.”

She said she thinks the anti-bullying campaign work done by the older students is making a difference in the school. The next step is getting the students to make anti-bullying presentations in nearby elementary schools.

“That's going to let them know before they ever get here, that at Bishop we're a family, and we don't believe in bullying,” Raymond said.

Participating in the teleconference with Broten was “really wonderful,” she said.
“She was actually asking for our input and what the government could do to help us with our programs, and to let us know there were opportunities to apply for money (for the program),” Raymond said. “I thought the kids had a great opportunity to share how they felt about the program. That was just really great.”

Posted by Arron Pickard