During the 2011/2012 school year, I was the teacher advisor to George Street Middle School’s anti-bullying program called Beyond the Hurt. In this article, I will share the empowering and joyful experiences I had with a group of young people who are some of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. They are living proof that students can help change a school culture and can directly have an impact on the bullying dynamic.
The Beyond the Hurt group was made up of twelve executive members as well as about thirty more students who, although not on the executive, made large contributions of time and energy to our Beyond the Hurt program over the course of the school year. Some of these students had been targeted in the past by bullies and wanted to empower themselves and others to make positive changes at their school; others had been bystanders, witnessing bullying and at times feeling helpless to do anything about it. This group wanted to empower themselves so that in the future they could make more informed and positive choices when it came to witnessing bullying. Finally, there were students who were admitted bullies, but who wanted to start the new school year off differently by sharing their experiences with other students and learning better ways of coping with stress and anger management.
Who would ever have thought that this group of very different personalities, backgrounds and experiences could come together to make such a huge impact on the student body at George Street, other schools within the school district, university students, teachers and even government officials? Well, I did and they did, and that was the first step, our rally cry for those who doubted us. Together, we were going to make a difference and help young people learn that bullying is not acceptable no matter the reason and will not be tolerated at our school or in our community. Equally, we were going to help young people help themselves.
In September the students selected for the program came in for two days of intensive anti-bullying training, with adult facilitators from the Canadian Red Cross Beyond the Hurt program educating them, but also learning from them. Over the two days the students, who had played different roles in bullying situations, discussed their personal experiences and quickly realized that the first step in changing the bullying dynamic was talking about it and empathizing with one another.
This article is from Canadian Teacher Magazine’s Nov/Dec 2012 issue.