Desiree Roberts, Sieana Meyers, Ellen Marshall and Brock Cameron presented a skit about the harmful effects of spreading rumours during an assembly Friday at East Pictou Middle School. The performance was part of a day-long event called Stand Up Against B

Students clad in pink t-shirts gathered in the gymnasium at East Pictou Middle School on Friday as part of the school’s third annual Stand Up Against Bullying day.
“We’re coming together as a whole school to take a stand and say bullying is not okay,” said teacher Bernice Cameron, one of the event’s organizers. “We need to really stop and think about our own actions.”
Before heading off to half-hour long sessions dealing with such topics as the criminal justice system, safe schools, cyber-bullying, healthy relationships and racial discrimination, students watched a short video about a boy who was the target of a cyber bully.
“I thought it was sad that he got picked on,” says Grade 7 student Cody Haas. “Sometimes jokes hurt people who don’t take it as a joke.”
“It made a point not to cyber-bully,” says Dakota Garneau, also a Grade 7 student.
In the video, a British student received threatening text messages and emails from a female student, who also posted embarrassing photos of the boy online.
After the video, four students presented a skit they wrote about bullying. The performance -- by Desiree Roberts, Sieana Meyers, Ellen Marshall and Brock Cameron -- showed how spreading rumours can hurt other people.
Principal Linda Williams told students a bully is someone who makes a conscious decision to willfully hurt someone else.
“As a community, we all have an opportunity to do something important here today,” she said. “The goal is to leave here today with more confidence and understanding of what this is all about, and make a difference in the community.”
Vice principal Blair MacDonald, who helped organize the day’s activities, says it’s important to bring attention to bullying.
“I think it’s important to do this as a collective group of students,” he says. “Everyone recognizes sometimes there are issues with bullying, and it’s important to recognize what bullying looks like. We recognize that it happens, and can fight it as a student body.”
While many schools across the province hold anti-bullying days in September, EPMS focuses on the issue in January. MacDonald says the first annual anti-bullying event was held at the school in conjunction with the national day, which took place prior to the province proclaiming the second Thursday in September as Stand Up Against Bullying Day. The school decided to continue holding its event in January in order to be consistent for students.
The inspiration for the provincial Stand Up Against Bullying Day came from the actions of two Grade 12 students from Central Kings Rural High School in Cambridge, Kings County. Travis Price and David Shepherd rallied behind a new student to the school who was being bullied simply for wearing a pink shirt. They brought pink shirts to school and handed them out to classmates to wear in solidarity with the new student. Pink shirts are now a symbol of the anti-bullying movement.
Organizers of the East Pictou event had planned for students to participate in workshops for the entire day, in place of regular classes, but a snowstorm forced the cancellation of school at noon.