小记者:Cindy Rachel Cissy
The British Columbia curriculum emphasizes the importance of having a safe environment for students to express themselves without social pressure. Bullying can cause physical harm, psychological suffering, self-harm, and even death. Additionally, it raises the likelihood of developing depression, anxiety, insomnia, reduced academic performance, and even dropping out of education. Young people who bully others are more likely to abuse drugs, struggle in school, and experience violence in adolescence and maturity. Youth who bully others and are bullied themselves endure the worst repercussions and are more likely to experience behavioral and mental health issues.
School should be a paradise for students to learn new things. However, incidents of bullying in schools in recent years have put a cloud over paradise. In order to counter this change in the weather, the BC Program at Jiaoke held a number of anti-bullying initiatives last week to raise awareness and promote positive and anti-bullying messages. Through positive actions we hope to stop “campus bullying” by giving our students more ways to stay safe and protect themselves through school activities.
Angela, a member of the Power of Positivity Club, told us where anti-bullying week came from: In 2007, a boy at a high school in Canada was picked on because he wore a pink shirt. In support of the boy who was being bullied, two other students at the school started a “pink-shirt campaign,” where they asked their classmates to wear pink t-shirts to school. This was the start of Pink Shirt Day. Since then, the color pink has come to mean anti-bullying, so we picked it as the theme for Anti-Bullying Week.
This week, our school had a lot of events. One of them was the “Tree of Love Project,” in which students and teachers were asked to write positive messages on cards and hang them on a certain tree. We also set up Ollianna the Otter, our mascot, to give free hugs in the halls, to cheer everyone up and send support to anyone who might be going through something bad.
Another important event was the Color Play. By letting students and teachers play and have fun together, we wanted to make our school community stronger and give everyone a chance to unwind after school.
The POP Club also decorated the school with pink balloons and told students to wear pink on Spirit Day to show their support for the pink spirit. They also gave all BC staff and students pink enamel pins and set up a Pink Hair Salon to add to the pink mood.
The Pop Club also sold Spirit Sets, which contained student-designed face masks and tattoo stickers. Not only did this make students and teachers feel better, but it also helped UNICEF China because all of the money raised went to them.
9A Cecilia
This is my first time taking part in the week against bullying. I also watched a movie made by the school to stop bullying and did many fun things with my friends.
11A Sammy
Campus bullying can happen anywhere in the school, and we need to find it and stop it before it gets out of hand.
11B Elaine
I took part in anti-bullying week’s color play and wore pink clothes, which made me feel very different. Even in the 11th grade, there is still a lot of pressure to learn, and I also urge everyone to do more of these things to ease the pressure.
10C Olivia
I think this sort of thing is very important. If you are being bullied, you can find out that a lot of people are on your side. This will give you the courage to deal with the problem and solve it quickly. We also learned how to stand up to bullies. Even if you haven’t experienced bullying, this is a good chance to learn about it so you can see if the people around you need help.
10B Selena
I think that the school did a great job with this event. Campus bullying is very common and hard to stop, so I think the most important thing about this program at our school is that it helps stop bullying by making more people aware of what it is.
Through this Week’s events, more students could learn about the origins of Anti-Bullying Week and what it is all about. Even if bullying isn’t happening near us, we should still do what we can to stop it. We will all work together to give our school, and each other, a bright future.