– Submitted by Clearwater RCMP
On Tuesday, Feb. 22, Clearwater RCMP Cst. Tyson Bruns conducted multiple presentations to the students of Raft River Elementary School regarding anti-bullying strategies and tools. Approximately 12 classes were taught with ages varying from Kindergarten to Grade 7 for the majority of the day.
The presentation went through the different definitions of bullying, its forms, the symptoms of bullying and what to do to help. The students were also taught that bullying doesn't always have to be a physical interaction and could also include threats, teasing as well as stealing. The symptoms of bullying that were explained to the classes were reclusiveness, fear of going to school and low self-esteem. Strategies to help with bullying included ignoring the bully, not resorting to physical or verbal violence and informing an adult, such as a parent, teacher, principal or lunch time supervisor.
There was also a small talk about cyber-bullying, since most students are on popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Much like the above common forms of bullying, ignoring the cyber-bully is the best way to stop the abuse. One thing that cyber-bullies fail to realize is that all the typed statements that they make online can be collected and saved by the victim as evidence.
This presentation was part of Anti-Bullying Week from Feb, 21 to 24 when different anti-bullying campaigns were provided, such as one of the drama classes performing skits for the rest of the school.
On Feb. 23 the students of Raft River all wore pink shirts in recognition of Anti-Bullying Day. The original source for wearing the pink shirt was in regards to a student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt. After seeing this, two students then organized the other students in their school to wear pink shirts as well. The students of Raft River distributed 200 pink shirts around the school for the event.