Students in Bonnyville both young and old were clued up on the importance of treating each other with respect last week as several local schools brought in a renowned Canadian organization to present on a variety of issues as a part of anti-bullying week.
Dwayne Peace is a retired Calgary police officer that for the past 11 years has spent his days travelling the continent to present the Dare to Care anti-bullying program to millions of youth. This past week he was in Bonnyville for special sessions with students from Dr. Brosseau Middle School and Bonnyville Centralized High School, while students at École des Beaux-Lacs can look forward to a presentation this week.
On Friday (Sept. 5) morning, Peace was at Dr. Brosseau for three hours to talk to Grade 7 and Grade 8 students about the harsh reality of bullying and all the consequences and repercussions that could potentially come as a result.
“My presentation is all about giving people good information,” Peace told the Nouvelle following last week's session. “The biggest concern I had when I was a police officer in Calgary is that I constantly saw great kids making bad choices and not being aware of the consequences.”
The program focused on things such as body issues, bullying, both in person and online, and suicide. Peace pointed to such tragedies as those surrounding teenagers Reena Virk, who was bullied and murdered in 1997, and Amanda Todd, who was bullied and committed suicide in 2012, and how something as simple as student intervention could have prevented the untimely deaths.
Ceara Cabana, a Grade 8 student at the school, said the presentation made a “real impression” on her and that she would do whatever she could moving forward to make people realize that bullying is wrong.
“I thought the presentation was really, really good. Dwayne explained everything really well and opened our eyes a little bit as to what is exactly going on in the world,” Cabana said. “It made a big impact on me. You don't realize the sort of hurt people go through and the damage people can do with some simple words and actions – it's scary.”
Fellow Grade 8 student Dyson Benko said he would be working extra hard moving forward to ensure bullying does not become a factor at Dr. Brosseau.
“I think the big thing to take away from the presentation today is just to be careful what you say and what you do to other people, especially online through social media,” Benko said. “I'm going to work hard to make sure bullying doesn't become an issue and to make sure I include other people in games and other things.”
He added, “Bullying isn't right and even though I knew that before, the presentation today just reinforced that.”
Vince Spila, principal at Dr. Brosseau, noted this was the fifth time he'd worked with the Dare to Care program dating back to his time at Assumption Jr/Sr High School in Cold Lake and while he admitted Peace was very blunt with his messages, he believes they have long-standing positive impacts on students.
“In previous years we've noticed this program has made a real difference to our students and it's had a real positive impact,” Spila said. “We've seen kids taking leadership, ownership and responsibility for their actions, while realizing that bullying doesn't have to happen in schools.”
Peace himself said that while he could talk about the importance of delivering this program to youth across the country, he believed the actions and words of those sitting in on the presentations counted for much more.
“I could sit here and tell you how important it is to get out and about spreading this message around, but that would be pointless. We know how important it is, so I'll tell you what the kids have told me – it's life changing for them,” Peace said. “A lot of these kids don't know they can get into trouble for some of the things they're doing – this presentation serves as a real eye opener to them, it causes them to look at things differently, it teaches them to be more accepting of other people and gives them more empathy – these are the things they're telling me.”
He added, “From speaking to principals and other educators where we've been in, we typically have a positive impact on these students moving forward and really give them something to think about, which is exactly why we're doing this.”
