But a comrade dares to stand up to the craze. What if we avoided spreading the rumor? What if we stopped spreading the video?
Whether passive or instigative, witnesses to an act of bullying have a key role to play in curbing this type of behavior, which is still present in schools, although certain methods have changed.
This is the message conveyed to some 750 elementary school students gathered in the auditorium of Massey-Vanier secondary school in Cowansville on Monday, thanks to a play presented by an after-school theater troupe.
Spiritual life and community engagement facilitator Sophie Rondeau-Chaput. (Catherine Trudeau/La Voix de l’Est)
“If a bully has no audience, he has less impact,” summarizes Sophie Rondeau-Chaput, a spiritual life and community engagement facilitator who participated in the play.
“In short, we must not play our heads in the sand. It only takes a few witnesses to change their reaction to get another story, to break the cycle.”
Strategies
The room Ostriches in the wild accurately and humorously illustrated how the intervention of witnesses helps curb petty behavior.
To remember, five strategies to get out of the trap: ask for help, assert yourself, show the bullied their importance, use humor and surround yourself with allies.
“The witnesses really have power over the situation,” says Méloïc, a secondary 2 student who participated in the performance.
His playing partner Elizabeth also points out that bullying “plays on the mental health” of the victims.
And what affects morale, obviously, also affects academic performance.
At the Val-des-Cerfs school service center, we recognize that “the face of bullying has changed,” says interim communications coordinator Audrey Leboeuf.
Also a spiritual life and community engagement facilitator, Stéphanie Berger organized this cultural activity. (Catherine Trudeau/La Voix de l’Est)
What once could remain within the walls of the school is easily transported outside, particularly on the Internet.
However, “bullying does not just concern those who suffer it,” explains Stéphanie Berger, who organized the play also shown to students at Haute-Yamaska last fall.
“Strategies can change the journey of someone who experiences them.”
As her colleague Sophie Rondeau-Chaput says: “we want a school where everyone is in their place and feels good”.
