Students lead anti-bullying crusade at LPS

Jeff Green | Nov 22, 2012

Grade 7 and 8 students at Loughborough Public School played a major role in the Anti-Bullying Week events at the school, which culminated in student-led, school-wide assemblies last Friday afternoon.

The multi-media presentation, which included music, several slide shows, video, and dance, dealt with some overt bullying tactics as well as some of the more subtle forms of bullying, such as exclusion and other ways that power is used against others.

Bullying can take physical and psychological forms, and the students were able to demonstrate some clear examples of different kinds of bullying behaviour.

Because of the size of the school, over 500 students, two assemblies were held, one for the primary and one for the junior grades.

One graphic example of how the anti-bullying message was delivered was a skit featuring four students dressed up in Pac-Man costume. One of the four Pac-Men encouraged two others to shun the fourth, who happened to be the pink Pac-Man. The two who were caught in the middle of the struggle sided with the bully at first, before they came around and took responsibility to end the bullying. The skit showed the audience that everyone in a school shoulders some responsibility for bullying.

Mark McGrady teaches one of the Challenge Program classes at LPS, and he played a role in organizing his students to run the assembly. His commitment to ridding the school of bullying behaviour recently led to recognition by the Youth Diversion Program of Kingston-Frontenac and the Limestone District School Board.

Youth Diversion operates a pro-active program in local schools. The program, which is called MEND (Mediating Ends Negative Disagreements), is devoted to finding ways to remove power dynamics from conversations within the school setting, be they conversations between students in or outside of class, or conversations between school staff and students. The testimonial that accompanied the award made reference to some of the ways that Mark McGrady has been effective in establishing a bullying-free atmosphere at Loughborough:

“Mark frequently volunteers time to teach differing grades about the power-bullying dynamic. He frequently offers input from his experience when the staff discussed school climate, and when teachers were having difficulties working through situations within their classrooms. He also frequently seeks out ways to ensure that students are in leadership positions within the school. These student leaders work as fitness leaders, coaches, and organizers. His level of empowerment in students is remarkable, which in turn allows them to have great confidence and pride in the school.”

Another visible aspect of the anti-bullying events at LPS were the blue shirts that just about every student and staff member were wearing on Friday. On the front of the shirts were the words ONE TEAM ONE PRIDE printed in large letters. PRIDE is the school’s motto, and it stands for Positive Thinking, Respect, Integrity, Determination, and Empathy.

On the back of the t-shirts it says, Loughborough Public School and We’ve got your back.

The events included all of the usual advice about reporting bullying to teachers and parents, but it also included information about how everyone can address the dynamic of bullying in the day-to-day life of a school and a community.