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Gazette - Empowering the victims of bullying
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NEWS NOTES
By Caroline Ross
Every seven minutes in Canada, a child or youth is the victim of bullying at school — a statistic identified by Canadian researchers. But bullying is often overlooked because bystanders are afraid to intervene and because victims feel alone and helpless.
“One thing we never really cover is the victim side,” says Jordan Boudreau, a Grade 9 student who describes the anti-bullying programs offered by schools in Nova Scotia (N.S.), where he lives. “If we can empower the victims, we won’t have to worry about bullying — know what I’m saying?”
Empowering victims is exactly the message of a student-led anti-bullying movement that swept through Nova Scotia schools last fall, generating media attention across North America and garnering support from provincial police.
The movement began when two high school students saw a younger student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. The next day, the two students came to school wearing pink shirts and encouraged others to do the same. The message took off, with schools across the province holding “pink shirt days,” and Nova Scotia’s premier declaring the second Thursday of every new school year as “Stand Up Against Bullying Day.”
RCMP officers who work in schools in Halifax, N.S., now wear a pink arm band in the school environment to show support for the student initiative.
“This is something student-generated and we’re jumping on the bandwagon, showing our support,” says Cst Curt Wentzell, the Halifax-area RCMP officer who started the pink arm band program. “Kids are enthusiastic. They appreciate authority figures supporting a youth initiative.”
Wentzell says that combating bullying at school can have longer-term benefits, such as reduced bullying in sports, the workplace and beyond. “Bullying is a circle of violence,” he says. “It’s not totally removed from domestic violence.”
Thirteen RCMP officers regularly visit Halifax-area schools to walk the hallways and speak to students about topics such as bullying, drugs and Internet safety.
