SUMMERLAND — With events like Pink Shirt Day, it appears awareness is growing about the issue of bullying.
But a group of Summerland students wanted to see if awareness would translate into action.
“In my experiences, when you’re getting bullied you feel as if you’re alone in this moment, no one is going to help you, no one is going to step in — it’s just you and that bully,” says Teaghan Trewhitt.
So the five friends staged some public acts of bullying and used a camera to record the public’s response.
Trewhitt plays the bully, shoving and verbally abusing his friend.
Some people immediately noticed what was happening and stepped in to help.
“It actually made me feel really good, knowing that people had my back in that situation,” says Navraj Raike, who plays the bullying victim.
But there were also people who turned a blind eye and did not intervene.
During their 2 hours of filming, there were more people who walked past the situation than those who stepped in to help.
“You can wear a pink shirt, and you can say you’d stop it if you see it. But when it comes down to it, and you see someone getting harassed and pushed up against the wall — yet you do nothing, how are you better than the bullies themselves?” questions Trewhitt.
They were frustrated when no one helped, but when someone did, he/she was dubbed a hero.
Click here to see their entire social experiment.
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