Mayor Brian Spiller proclaimed Innisfail to be a ‘community striving to be bully free' in council last week.
And that proclamation will go hand in hand with National Bullying Awareness Week, which is commemorated across the country from November 17 to 23.
Agencies from the Innisfail Family Centre to the RCMP to the Innisfail Junior/Senior High School are planning activities in recognition that individuals in Innisfail live with, or have lived with bullying, that bullying occurs at all ages, that it occurs both in person and across the Internet, and that everyone has the power to stop bullying.
“Bullying is an ongoing problem,” said Tammy Oliver-McCurdie, FCSS support services manager. “It occurs at all ages, in all occupations, and all income levels. We want to equip people to help stop bullying.”
The provincial government, through its Family Violence and Bullying Program provides support to communities and individuals dealing with bullying issues.
“Bullying, at its root, is not a discipline problem, but rather a relationship issue,” said Leanne Lake, an Alberta Health Services family violence and bullying program specialist.
According to contemporary research, bullying occurs when a conscious, wilful, deliberate, and repeated hostile activity takes place intending to inflict fear, violence, or fear of violence. Bullying can be verbal, social, and cyber–related or physical.
“The government has designed resources on all types of family violence and bullying,” Oliver-McCurdie added. “We have information on recognizing bullying, on preventing bullying, on adult behaviours that can help stop it, on sports bullying, on dating violence, and of course, on cyber bullying.”
As part of National Bullying Awareness Week, Steve Jackson, student counsellor at St. Marguerite Bourgeoys School, has planned a school-wide campaign. “At St. Marguerites, we have good community support and are able to prevent bullying before it happens. We have found that with good teacher supervision and being interactive with our students, that we have fewer problems than we might normally have.
“For the week, we are focusing on two themes, the Future is Ours, Safe, Fun and Connect, and Stand Up to Bullying. Our plan is to emphasize those with activities on November 22, 2013,” added Jackson. “Around mid-afternoon, the entire school, approximately 300 students, will be gathering outside in the field and linking together in support of each other. Later, we will be meeting in the school hallways, and singing Lean on Me, holding onto each other to signify that together we can stand up to bullying.”
Innisfail RCMP Const. Christopher Lavery will be teaching a cyber bullying class to students from grades 6 through 9 as part of the DARE program, and C.A.R.E. (Central Alberta Refugee Effort) is talking to kindergarten to Grade 5 students on the topic of bullying and bullying prevention as well on Nov. 22.
Innisfail Junior/Senior High has a long-term strategy for dealing with violence and bullying issues. “We work on an ongoing basis with presentations by Constable Christopher Lavery on different aspects of bullying and we also have a family wellness worker in school who meets with students and helps us deal with situations as they arise,” said Narsh Ramrattan, vice-principal at Innisfail Senior High. “We find that we have had a decrease in incidents at the school. I like the way we are dealing with these issues.”
In support of National Child Day, and National Bullying Awareness Week the Innisfail Family Centre has initiated the Bucket Filler campaign as well to pay it forward by filling each other's buckets with positive messages as a preventive strategy.
The newly named Innisfail Family Violence and Bullying Coalition has been working with the Alberta government to develop a framework that will result in long-term programs for the Innisfail area. Coalition members are distributing anti- bullying posters around Innisfail.
Innisfail resident Pat Coupland spoke about bullying in her life during a recent coalition meeting. “As a young woman, I remember watching my brother being bullied, and not being sure what to do about it,” she said. “Now, with all the resources that we have, no one has to go through that and we can prevent the lifetime of damage that results.”
For further information on bullying awareness, you can go to www.bullyingawarenessweek.org
