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Recently, the Huddle Up Committee at St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School in Markham held a school assembly to combat bullying with members from the Toronto Argonauts. The Huddle Up Committee at the school is made up of student leaders from grades 3-8, and teacher advisors Mrs. Fazzari and Ms. Montini.
St. Patrick’s Huddle Up Committee is part of the Huddle Up Bullying Prevention School Program which is a multi-faceted program committed to empowering youth so they can prevent bullying in their schools. Sponsored by Tim Hortons, this program includes visits by Toronto Argonauts players and cheerleaders and is supported by the Canadian Safe School Network.
The Huddle Up Committee started planning the recent assembly in November, when they first met with the Huddle Up program coordinator, Erin Schneider. The student leaders worked with Erin and their teacher advisors to develop strategies to promote key bullying prevention messages, specific to their school community.
The committee decided that rather than concentrating solely on correcting the behaviour of the bully, they wanted to reach out and influence the actions of all parties involved in bullying situations; victims and bystanders learn to address the situations before it results in negative consequences.
The assembly was held in the school gym and was designed to raise awareness about bullying and provide students with the necessary tools to deal with it. Matt Black, #39 for the Argos, led the assembly, accompanied by team members, Joe Eppele, Mike Bradwell and Chris Smith.
The football players and the Argos community relations manager, Jason Colero shared their personal experiences with bullying. Matt Black provided students with a personal account of the tools needed to deal with the many issues involved in bullying. Some topics that were covered included: the impact the bystander has on bullying, the reasons someone bullies, and some solutions to the problem.
The second part of the assembly was led by the St. Patrick Huddle Up student leaders, who presented their ongoing bullying prevention plans for the school. This is part of the philosophy of the Huddle Up program, where students encourage their peers to stand up to bullying.
The assembly was very successful in raising awareness about bullying and the St. Patrick Huddle Up Committee is now planning a follow-up presentation for February. Acknowledging that bullying occurs in all shapes, sizes and genders, the upcoming presentation will be a smaller-scaled forum for St. Patrick’s junior and intermediate female students, and will include members of the Toronto Argonauts cheerleaders who will tackle the issues involved with female bullying.