What lurks in the hallways is an ongoing issue in our society: bullying.
To bring attention to this issue Lethbridge College hosted a Bully Awareness Week last week with events for students to share their thoughts on bullying.
Student Wellness Coordinator Brittney Kiefer organized this event to bring light to a subject everyone has experienced.
“I know that bullying is something that we can all relate to, I think every student has either been bullied or have bullied another individual.” says Keifer.
Last week’s activities included the Wall of Kindness, a place where students could write positive messages for others to read, and a screening of the movie Monsters University.
A type of bullying that is very present in today’s online world is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying includes people being taunted on Facebook, Twitter, and other online mediums.
At Lethbridge College there’s a hot topic online that’s been causing disruption among students and staff. The L.C. Confession Facebook page, where people can write anonymous comments, has been growing numbers of negative messages geared towards others.
“I think the page itself is good because it’s creating extensive community online, which we want, we want to have students to feel involved and feel engaged with other students. I think what’s negative about it is some of the backlash coming out. People know that the comments are anonymous so they are allowed to post whatever they want. Sometimes individuals can get caught up with negative messages and post negative comments,” says Keifer.
Now, there are a number of people monitoring this page reporting abusive comments, trying to lower the risk.
“I think the L.C. Confessions page is doing it’s best now to help lower that risk. We want our students to be healthy and communicate with each other positively,” says Kiefer.
Bully Awareness has been happening at the college for 10 years now. Having the event in the centre core of the college had involved over 200 students taking part in activities and picking up pamphlets and resources. .
The Bully Awareness was a success in informing students on the issue.