Carlyle was awash with pink last week as almost 400 students trekked through the streets in the bright coloured shirts in recognition of their fight against bullying.
Students from Carlyle Elementary and G.F. Kells High School joined hands in solidarity on Thursday, May 1 to celebrate Pink Day. The theme for this year's occasion was "cyberbullying" and before students from both schools took to the streets an assembly was held at each school to address the importance of the day. Students from the elementary school then made their way to GF Kells to join the high school students during sessions on cyberbulling. Guidance councilor at GF Kells, Tom Broccolo was the main organizer of the event and said eight workshops would be hosted by teachers that day. He also highlighted the importance of addressing cyberbullying.
"Our theme, cyber bullying is one that we feel, really reaches kids at a really important level, its current, it's relevant to some of the real life challenges kids are working with in and out every day," he said.
"What we are most excited about with this year's version of Pink Day is the workshops we have introduced this year. We are really excited because we really think it's going to give kids a chance to work with the material and understand the issues and give their own input on how they feel about the [issue]."
The students were divided into eight groups with each group focusing on different topics. Broccolo said each group learnt something different and targeted a specific part of cyber bullying. The title of some sessions included, "Cyberbullying: Crossing the line," Cyberbullying: Be Upstanding," and "Over Exposed; Sexting and Relationships" among others.
Teacher at the high school and an instructor of one of the sessions Angelica Weibe said the walk is a great way to get all the kids together and both schools involved. Her workshop was entitled "Becoming a Web Celeb" and she spoke of an illustration used during her session to better identify how one can quickly receive backlash from the online world.
"The main example we had was a case study on Rebecca Black, she had that song Friday and how she was thirteen when she made the video and it exploded and went viral and all the negative comments that came with it," she said.
The popular circle of trust was made as students stood together holding hands and posing for a picture before they started their walk from the high school. They made their way to Mountain Avenue and then up Main Street. The business community in Carlyle played their part in Pink Day as many stores were decorated in recognition of the day. Students were able to enter several businesses along the strip and speak to the owners about the day.
Principal of G.F. Kells High School, Maurice Saltel said the day is a group effort as the issue is not just within their own school but within the community as a whole.
"We find that when we raise the importance of this issue that we get a lot of support from parents, when we go and walk downtown we get a lot of support from the community and what I have learned is that in this community is that, we're all together in this," he said.
He said Pink Day is a significant event and the students walking downtown demonstrated how the school believes in the issue and highlighted support from business owners shows how important they think it is as well. He also addressed the school's approach to dealing with bullying and not only the victims but also the bully themselves.
"I guess it comes down to how we are going to treat kids who really make poor decisions on how they are going to interact with other kids and are we going to be a punishment oriented or are we going to be supportive," he said.
"Are we going to be the type of school community that says, 'Yeah you made some really bad choices here, you're going to get it or do we say 'look, you need to get better on how you interact with other kids," the principal said.
He also indicated that when attention is drawn to the issue youth are a lot better at pointing out to others the poor decisions they have made which he said makes everyone's life easier.
"Kids are more aware of it and are less willing to put up with it," he said.
After their walk through downtown, the students made their way back to the high school where they engaged in other activities in celebration of the day.
