DARTMOUTH – Nova Scotia students hope a new campaign will create something positive out of a recent bullying tragedy.
Starting Monday, students at Dartmouth High School will sign cards, in the shape of a smartphone, pledging to take action against cyberbullying and not bully their peers. The campaign is called “We have the power”.
Teacher Heather Hughes-Leck says the aim is to get students to act positively and responsibly on social media. The campaign comes in the shadows of the death of Rehtaeh Parsons, a 17-year-old from Cole Harbour who took her own life after cyberbullying stemming from an alleged sexual assault.
“It’s destroying lives. It’s literally destroying lives and by being positive and focusing on that, hopefully we can save people from being bullied and cyberbullied,” she said. “It shouldn’t be happening in 2013 but these things still are.”
Hughes-Leck says the students may pledge things such as, “I will not call a girl a slut”, “I will not send negative pictures” and “I will build people up, not tear them down”.
She hopes to prompt teens to think twice before they act or react on social media.
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“It’s so easy to push that button and not think about what’s happening. You’re anonymous. You push it and it’s gone. But we really want teens to think before you hit send, think before you re-tweet things,” Hughes-Leck said.
The pledges were collected during the lunch hour at Dartmouth High School. Hughes-Leck says she is aiming to collect 600 pledges from the school’s 850 students.
Students say the “We have the power” campaign has the power to end the cycle of bullying.
“It’s things like this that slow the cycle down and really weaken it. It really makes people not want to hurt others,” said student Henoc Senay.
“It’s not hard to see there is a lot of negativity surrounding social media,” said student Bradley Hebb. “I think this will bring the negativity to light and hopefully bring a stop to it.”
And others are hopeful the campaign will create long-term impact on bullying.
“I think what our world needs right now is a lot of positive reinforcement. I would love for this to be long term,” said student Bethany Maclean, who was involved in organizing the campaign. “I think it really needs to be to make a change in the world.”
Hughes-Leck says that on Tuesday the students will tweet out their pledges then hold a moment of silence for victims of bullying.
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