Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary tackles bullying with kindness

As part of Global News’ special series on how Montreal-area schools are helping students to deal with bullying, several students have been invited to be a reporter-for-a-day and produce a report on bullying in their schools.

MONTREAL – At Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School, students and staff take a different approach to bullying, where the kids replace mean acts for kind ones.

POLL: Have you ever been bullied in school?

Michelle Stein, the school principal, said she believes it’s better to teach children about what they can do, rather than what they can’t.

“You can’t do this, you can’t do that, you can’t bully and you can’t push…so what can you do?” she explained.

Last fall, the school participated in the 21 days of kindness challenge to encourage students to help others. 

IT was the first school in Quebec to take on the challenge.

“I wanted to them to know what things they can do in order for the atmosphere to be positive and in order for them to have a better life,” Stein said.

“Be kind to others and others will be kind to you.”

Watch: Interview with principal Michelle Stein about 21 days of kindness challenge

Altogether students performed over 3000 acts of kindness.

“I helped my grandma take out the recycling and I helped her cook,” said Grade four student, Giuliano Santi.

The kids said it made them realize that being nice can feel good.

“It made their day, it made them feel better if they were sad,” explained Grade five student, Juliana Moffa.

Even though the kindness challenge only lasted three weeks, students try to be generous all year round.

Every month the school has a different theme.

The school’s spiritual animator, Frank Lofeodo explained.

“For January we were talking about trust, in February we were talking about compassion, and in March we’ll talk about forgiveness.”

The lessons learned will help them become better people, now, and in the future

And in case students forget, there are posters all around the school to remind them of a four letter word that can make the world a better place.