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Charlie Sargent may be a soft-spoken teen, but the few words he does utter carry some serious weight. And it turns out he’s a pretty decent photographer too. The Grade 10 student from St.
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Charlie Sargent, a Grade 10 student at St. Patrick High School, says he wanted to stand up for students who don't always get the respect they deserve. His picture won the Thunder Bay Youth Strategy’s Anti-Discrimination and Racism committee’s Photo Voice competition on Thursday night at the Canada Games Complex. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

Charlie Sargent may be a soft-spoken teen, but the few words he does utter carry some serious weight.

And it turns out he’s a pretty decent photographer too.

The Grade 10 student from St. Patrick High School on Thursday was named the winner of the Thunder Bay Youth Strategy’s Anti-Discrimination and Racism committee’s Photo Voice project, for his striking shot of a teen, sitting with his head bowed in front of a yellow crossing-guard hut.

The caption on the photo reads: Don’t label me, help me.

The 16-year-old, who took the shot in front of Holy Family School, near his home, said standing up for respect is important.
“Everyone deserves it,” he said.

One of about 20 youngsters between 13 and 24 who entered the contest, Sargent said he took part because he wanted  to stand up for the little guy.

“There’s people in my school who always get put down and stuff like that, so I thought I’d do this to try to help out, stuff like that,” he said.

The project was the brainchild of Katie Forsythe, a Lakehead University social work student who came up with the idea while interning with the United Way of Thunder Bay.

“We wanted it to be a consciousness-raising and awareness project, where we put out the question what does respect look like in Thunder Bay or what are the challenges in Thunder Bay and really get feedback from youth on what they think about respect,” Forsythe said.

The ultimate goal was to get the participants thinking about what they could do to improve the situation in the city, whether individually or institutionally, to combat what they saw.

To make it as accessible a project as possible, youth were allowed to submit photos from their phones, their iPads, digital cameras – virtually any device capable to taking, storing and sending photos.

They were also allowed to manipulate the photos in Photoshop.

The results were stunning, Forsythe said.

“We have ones that deal with buildings, some that deal with artwork on buildings. We have pictures of individuals that were shown. And they all kind of talked about different things to do with respect. Some are dealing with the institutionalizing of respect, like the (City of Thunder Bay’s) Respect campaign. Some are more on the individual level about not being judgmental,” she said.

“Some of conveys positive messages around the idea we need to respect our opinions and we’re better together than we are separate. Some of them take look at more of the challenges around it, like whose voices aren’t being heard when we look at artwork.”

Sargent’s photo struck a chord with the young judges who chose it No. 1.

“I think that’s what made it a winner. Many people feel sometimes that they’re left behind and they don’t necessarily measure up to the kind of competitive nature of the education system. So I think sometimes that’s a really poignant piece that a lot of people can relate to – feeling left out in a group or feeling like you’re left behind.”

The photos will be on display at this weekend’s Folklore Festival and Forsythe said she’s looking for other venues, including city hall, to continue the exhibition throughout the summer.

 



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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