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ARVIAT
The first official Anti-Bullying Day was held at John Arnalukjuak High School (JAHS) in Arviat this past month.

Leo Kookeyuk shows he knows the difference between bullying facts and myths during Anti-Bullying Day at JAHS in Arviat this past month. - photo courtesy of JAHS

JAHS teacher Kim Dymond helped organize the event and said everything went phenomenally well.

She said the students learned a lot from participating.

"We started with a slide-show presentation by our Grade 12 students, who all did videos on anti-bullying," said Dymond.

"Then we split into our mentor groups and did activities throughout the school, ranging from a word scramble about bullying to a giant board game, and signing an anti-bullying pledge.

"The students designed personalized hands to place around the school's anti-bullying pledge.

"We also had a truth-or-myth wall with numerous statements about bullying, and students had to decide whether each one was true or a myth."

One of the more popular presentations of the day came from a student group's use of puppets to help make their point.

As well, miles of video was used to film students doing poems and creating slogans.

The video will be edited into a presentation and shown at the school during another anti-bullying day this coming February.

Dymond said the event was a joint co-operation between the school's mentorship and leadership and resiliency (LRP) programs.

She said the two groups worked together to come up with the day's activities.

"The students do see bullying at the school, especially since they're now aware of actions they didn't know were bullying before, such as making someone do something for you.

"They've begun to understand bullying isn't just yelling at or pushing another student.

"Something like stealing someone's jacket and hiding it on them so they have to walk home without a jacket is also bullying.

"You see some students think about something they're about to do now before actually going ahead with it."

Dymond said bullying via social media and the Internet has also been discussed with the students.

She said one Grade 12 group did a video on cyber-bullying, using Facebook as an example of people writing nasty things on someone's wall or spreading rumours.

"The kids understand pictures they send can be put on Facebook or other sites on the Internet for anyone to see.

"Everyone in the school knows and has talked about Amanda Todd (a Grade 10 student who took her own life earlier this year after being cyber-bullied and blackmailed after baring her breasts to a stranger over the Internet).

"We had an RCMP officer in during our anti-bullying assembly and he talked about Amanda Todd, telling the students what happened to her should never happen to anyone else."

LRP co-ordinator Ross Paterson said a number of the Grade 12 videos were poignant enough to have some students with tears in their eyes during the assembly.

He said JAHS students are instructed on coping strategies, goal setting and healthy relationships, but the anti-bullying presentations were especially strong because they, themselves, generated the ideas, thought about the way to present them and came in for extra hours to prepare them.

"It was a great 45-minute session on our blue steps because it was their own message to their peers," said Paterson.

"We've been telling them they're the leaders of the school and, after that day, many of them came to the realization they are, indeed, just that.

"They took some ownership and accountability for the way school life happens from day to day and really stepped up the plate.

"That's not to say we've vanquished bullying from school hallways, but there's definitely kids willing to speak up now when they see it taking place and it's those small steps that create a shift in behaviours."

Paterson said even things like one student telling another to go outside to chew snuff, if they must do it, so they don't get kicked-out of school for two days can make a difference.

He said courage, understanding, communication and the expression of true feelings are key to removing bullying from daily life at the school.

"There was really a lot of positive energy surrounding that whole afternoon.

"We have a fantastic school, and that kind of strong attachment to your school which I grew up with is really starting to blossom here.

"There's a growing recognition we're really lucky to have such a beautiful school and environment.

"The students are realizing they can either make it even better or spoil it by doing things like bullying, and they seem to be turning strongly towards taking ownership to make something great even better."

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