Bully awareness

Evan Sas sees bullying in the hallways of his high school, but he knows it’s not an isolated issue.

“There’s bullying everywhere,” he said. “I’m pretty sure every kid in every school sees bullying somewhere in some shape or form at some time.”

The Grade 10 Westgate Collegiate and Vocational Institute student was one of 10 students participating in the Red Cross’ Beyond the Hurt, a two-day program to train youth facilitators in bully prevention.

The 10 students spent Wednesday and Thursday learning how to identify, deal with and prevent bullying and also how to pass on the message to their peers.

“The research tells us that kids learn from kids a lot better,” said Nestor Shartun, trainer with the Canadian Red Cross. “They know how to relate to kids. They know how to get the message across to each other. The program’s based on that so we train them so they can reach their own peers.”

Through group work, role-play and various other techniques, the students learn to take in all aspects of bullying – the aggressor, the target and bystanders – and understand where each party is coming from and how to prevent the bullying from recurring.

Shartun said he was impressed with the Westgate students and was confident they’re going to do a great job.

“They’re bright, creative. They’re risk takers; they’re not worried about making a mistake and learning from it,” he said.

Thursday morning, Shartun asked the students what they learned the first day and he said from 10 students, he received 10 different answers. One replied they now understand the different types of bullying. Another said they understood how people can misuse power.

“I kept on hearing ‘understand,’ which means we’re getting the message through,” he said.
After the two-day session is over, the students are certified to deliver presentations on the subject matter and that’s what Sas is looking forward to doing.

“I’d like to go back to some elementary schools just to help the students out there so I can help fix the problem earlier so we can prevent it in high school so it doesn’t move on,” he said.