No Bullying means no bullying

By Ryan LeClaire
Young People's Press

Lunch money belonging to Wellington County school children just got safer from bullies.

The Centre Wellington Committee Oriented Policing (COP) committee is preparing to launch a new anti-bullying program, No Bullying, for local youths.

The program will reach both youths and adults, said OPP Const. Keith Rodd, co-chair with Kathy Onifrichuk of COP's anti-bullying subcommittee.

"We want to attack it from both angles. We want to teach police and teachers to recognize potential situations. We want everyone on the same page," Rodd said.

Onifrichuk said there is a need to raise awareness about bullies and the program is overdue.

"We really want to bring the topic to the foreground. Things like Columbine brought some attention to it. But we'd like to go further," she said.

The program should build on what the local schools already have to offer, she said.

"The info that is getting to the children is along the lines of 'talk to your teacher, talk to your principal,' and after doing some legwork we found it sort of stopped there. It's fine to identify the problem, but we want to go a step further.

No Bullying is currently in its early stages, as the committee reviews what resources are in place and what needs to be done. The first goal is to establish a clear definition of bullying, Onifrichuk said.

"What we have started with is 'a pattern of harassment, either verbal or physical, that is re-occurring.' We keep finding more and more exceptions to that. If I go out and beat you up in the parking lot, just once, that is still bullying."

A clearer definition will help children realize they're being bullies without knowing it, she said.

"What we've found so far is a lot of bullies don't even realize they're doing anything wrong. It's second nature to them."

The committee also hopes to deal with youths who are too afraid to come forward and tell an adult they have been bullied. Onifrichuk said she hopes the program will help by broadening what children think of tattletaling.

"We want to define a difference between telling and tattletaling. If you tell someone little Ryan spilled the juiced on the rug, that's kind of tattling, but if Ryan hit somebody, it's okay to tell somebody."

Bullying, aside from physical abuse, can take many forms and the program will attempt to address the less acknowledged forms, such as hazing on sports teams.

To deal with hazing, the program will call on the help of local sports coaches, Onifrichuk said. "We're going to try to hit the arenas, and try to talk to coaching clinics"

Another less acknowledged form of bullying is gossip, which is more common among female students, said Onifrichuk.

"One of the things we've found is that while boys tend to use their fists, girl bullies tend to be more subtle, by gossiping and things like that."

The program will hit county schools in the fall and early plans call for a diverse range of approaches to teach youths about bullying. Posters, pamphlets, and comic books will be distributed, and students will participate in a series of workshops with guest speakers.

A wide range of events will be more effective, Onifrichuk said.

"It's more effective if you have skits performed, if you have a basketball game, if you have the father of a child who was killed a bully. You're going to reach more people that way"

Bullying is common in all stages of life. Many adults will still encounter it in the workplace. She hopes the program can address those issues as well by teaching adults to recognize them.