It can be appalling and hurtful to learn that your classmate may have gotten in trouble for picking on other kids or has been pigeonholed as a bully. As hard as it may be to hear this news, it’s important to deal with it immediately. Whether physical or verbal, bullying can lead to more hostile antisocial behavior if not stopped. This is why in last week’s YD class, the seventh grade decided to inform students on the importance of anti-bullying.

The teacher started off with a brief introduction of what bullying is and asked: “What do you think of the bully?” Simple, but deep. Students provided answers like pushing, swearing at him/her, isolating, etc. But little did anyone know that cyber-bullying and verbal bullying all count as an action of harming others. Bullying is an unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.

Teachers then proceeded on with a few scenarios to role play. Each actor in each play wrote feedback on how they felt. From the point of view of the victim: “I feel intimidated and powerless, I want to fight back but I realize I don’t have this capability.”

Students who are bullied and who bully others may have serious,lasting problems. In order to prevent that, students learned and they improved on the awareness of hurtful intentions.

Bullying is never something that can be tolerated. Our school will stand firmly behind its campaign to rid bullying on all levels.

Written by Eugenie 7 (1)

Supervised by Fergal Lochhead  

Pictures by Grade 7 teachers

Edited by Serene Yang, Niall Keenan