Mosaic on Bullying
Posted Sep 4, 2011 07:14:50 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
With high school and elementary school now just a couple days away, many youth are worried about being bullied.
Mosaic Counselling and Family Services councillor Jennifer Vasic tells 570 News there are some advocacy groups available to high school students in most schools, like W.A.Y.V.E., “it stands for Working Against Youth Violence Everywhere, and they train the students who are in that group around issues of bullying, harassment, discrimination, suicide and gang-violence. What it does is it provides peer-support, education to other students and resources that would be available to other students in the school”.
Another similar group is the G-S-A, or the Gay-Straight-Alliance, and it provides support and information with the purpose to end homophobia and heterosexism. It is also in many high schools.
Vasic also suggests having an adult-ally,” someone you’ve previously had a good relationship with or you’ve heard other students have had a good relationship with or specific people at the school; Guidance Councillor, or a Vice Principal, or Social Worker, Child and Youth Worker. Those are all great people to build relationships with”. Vasic adds that when you have an existing relationship in place with a good “adult-ally”, it can make it a lot easier to tell them about a scary situation. Those conversations can be kept confidential if there isn’t an immediate safety concern.
Another strategy Vasic suggests is to join clubs and teams to make friends with similar interests, allowing students to have a social network at school.
