Local students launch anti-cyberbulling campaign for kids and parents
Posted April 10, 2014 9:05 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
WEST VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A group of students at a local school are taking efforts to stop cyberbullying into their own hands, launching a campaign targeting students and parents.
The initiative was spearheaded by Lauren Yip, a Grade 11 student at Sentinel Secondary in West Vancouver.
“I was bullied a lot in elementary school and high school so I thought it was time for me to do something where I could create more awareness for students and parents to know what’s going on on social media,” she tells News1130.
“You should really choose your words wisely because you never know what kind of an effect your words will have one someone who reads or hears them. I thought it would help if students see that people are actually watching,” explains Yip.
Using posters, social media and hand-outs, Sentinel CyberSafe is now spreading the word. After parent resources were sent home with report cards, Yip says the response has been very positive.
“I was worried about a backlash — a negative response — but when I showed it to students, they actually thought it was good.”
Carol Todd — the mother of bullied teen Amanda Todd, who committed suicide in 2012 — has also reached out to Yip.
“I’ve been talking to her on Twitter and she’s been helping me get the word out. I didn’t expect this kind of support but she is a really nice person. I’m really proud of the things she’s doing as well so we are kind of supporting each other.”
Teachers like David Gibson are pleased at how quickly the initiative has taken off.
“It’s absolutely overwhelming how excited people are about this. The administration at our school and the District have been just phenomenal in supporting us in this cause, right down to allowing us to give the hand-out in report cards to touch every single student’s parents with this information. The message is still young at the school, the posters just went up last week, but certainly the backlash that Lauren was worried about has not taken place,” he says.
The students plan to expand the program by bringing in speakers to talk about cyberbullying and expanding resources for parents to help them recognize signs their children are are being targeted.
