In October, a handful of Halton District School Board schools held a collaborative two-day anti-bullying workshop.

A key goal of the seminar was to teach students coping strategies so they could share with other students to help prevent various types of bullying, like cyber-bullying, from occurring in their schools.

Called Beyond the Hurt Peer Facilitation: Bullying and Harassment Prevention, Training for Youth, it was facilitated by The Canadian Red Cross and held at Post’s Corners in Oakville. In addition to that school participating, River Oaks, Sunningdale and Montclair public schools, plus White Oaks Secondary School took part.

Post’s Corners Principal Jane Lewis says the objective of the seminar was to examine all types of harassment and bullying, and to build peer facilitation skills to enable students to deliver bullying and harassment presentations to their peers and schools.

“We recognize student involvement will be key to creating a positive climate in schools,” says Lewis. “It is our hope that by providing students with the skills to become peer facilitators, we will have a greater impact on our students. Prevention and awareness is key; this will also assist us in building our community's capacity to respond to bullying and harassment.”

Students participated in activities to foster communication and facilitation skills. They viewed videos and reflected/discussed the types of bullying behaviours. They also learned games and activities that could be used to share their learning in classrooms in their school.

The students were given an opportunity to present mini lessons to the larger group with feedback.

The Halton District School Board takes the issue of bullying very seriously. It has a long-standing a policy around bullying, which states the Board is “committed to the establishment and maintenance of safe, caring and inclusive school environments in order to maximize the learning potential of all students, and to ensure a positive school climate for all members of the school community.”

Also, the Board recently distributed an information guide to parents and guardians addressing bullying prevention. This guide is also available on the Board website, www.hdsb.ca.

According to Public Safety Canada, studies suggest eight per cent of students, aged 12-19, report weekly they are victims of bullying.

Post’s Corners Teacher Gord Morris says the workshop was aimed to “empower students” to facilitate bullying prevention at their schools.

“It is important to find new and innovative ways to share the message and have students buy in. Student facilitators may be part of the answer as well as using social media. My students thoroughly enjoyed the seminar and have been directly involved in the planning and future implementation of a bullying prevention program to be launched at our school.”

Lewis says she learned from the seminar “the power and wisdom of the students. We need to tap into this much more.”