Students savvy when it comes to bullying
Posted Feb 7, 2011 05:30:20 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A South-Ottawa mom is planning to sue the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board because her son has been bullied.
Michelle MacLeod says her son Dillon, 14, has been bullied by another boy at Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School in Barrhaven since September.
And she says the school hadn’t done enough.
But high school students at Canterbury High School say they trust the school to act.
They could also turn to each other for pretty good advice since the students seemed pretty savvy when it comes to dealing with bullies.
They said if a friend were being mistreated, they know exactly what they’d tell them to do.
First, they said to stick up for themselves.
Zane, a grade nine student said that was the best line of defence.
“Stay strong, l think one of the things that bullies do is try to make you feel weaker and usually they’re the ones that are week,” he said.
“So just stay strong and look to your friends, you real friends, and you should be good.”
If that fails, students say to talk to a teacher or someone in a position of authority that they trust.
And when they can, Kaitlin says kids should tell their parents.
“It really makes it easy if you know and trust someone to go and talk to them,” she said.
One mom, Frances, said the best thing that a parent can do is to be there for their child.
“You have to hope that your kids are comfortable enough to tell you when they’re being bullied at school,” she said. ]
“A lot of the times that’s the problem, right? Because they don’t want to admit to their parents that they’re having trouble.”
She said she would put her trust in the school to handle the situatio and is surprised that MacLeod had to resort to filing a suit.
But, she said making it public could raise awareness about bullying.
“Awareness is always good because if you don’t talk about things they tend to get put on the back burner,” she said.
She added that she hopes this could get parents, teachers, and students talking.
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