Students take stand against bullying

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This article was published 07/03/2012 (5184 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A group of Elmwood students showed their support in the fight against bullying last week.

Students from River Elm School wore pink shirts at an assembly last week as part of Pink Shirt Day.

They wore pink to acknowledge a nationwide campaign against bullying.

The school’s Earth Club, led by teachers Debby Gapka, Renu Gill, and Lynn Avery, worked together to plan the school’s first Pink Shirt Day.

The day was originally founded five years ago when a male student in Halifax was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. Two other students came to his aid and organized for their classmates to wear pink shirts the following day as a show of solidarity against bullies.

Grade 6 student Shane Cinq-Mars said he welcomed the opportunity to take a stand against bullying.

“It makes me feel responsible and like a leader,” he said. “It shows people that bullying is a terrible thing.”

Fellow Grade 6 student Favour Ugbah said he hopes students at the school will understand the negative impact bullying can have.

“I hope they learn that bullying is not good because it hurts a lot of people,” Ugbah said. “Many people even leave school because of it.”

The school’s Earth Club, which was developed five years ago, has been focusing on anti-bullying initiatives in recent years.

Avery said school is a appropriate place to teach kids about the dangers of bullying.

“There’s always playground issues, and this is the place to start teaching kids about it,” she said.

Principal Tom Chan said the students were anxious to be part of such an important initiative.

“In this school we’ve been doing education in sustainable environment, and global citizenship is part of that,” Chan said.

“Part of that is you don’t bully one another, this anti-bullying fits in with the education perfectly.”

Cinq-Mars said he hopes students learned something by participating in the event and that it encourages them to make a difference in the fight against bullying.

“I think this is really great because we can help stop bullying in our community,” he said.

“Everyone deals with bullying, if someone calls you a name or hurts you in some other way, that’s bullying.”

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adrian.alleyne@canstarnews.com