For having more than 250 students and staff together in one room, the crowd was surprisingly quiet as the third annual Horizon School Division Student Day was kicked off with motivational speakers and presentations.
The day began with a enthusiastic speech by motivational speaker, Andy Thibodeau. He focused on what it means to be a caring and happy person, how that’s beneficial and how it minimizes the negative effects of bullying.
“My challenge to leaders of any group is that they have to be an example of care for others to follow. Who has to be a good listener? Me. Who has to be loud and proud? Me. Who has to be a good audience member? Me. Who has to be an example of good participation for other people to follow? Me,” he said. “We can’t control anyone else; you can only lead one person: yourself. If other people decide to follow, that’s up to them.”
Thibodeau’s speech was interspersed with much humour and anecdotes from when he was around the same age. He told the students and staff that being a leader means being a caring person and someone who listens. He explained the latter point by saying a good listener is one who is quiet, doesn’t interrupt (even by pulling out a cell phone), and one who asks questions.
“Be borderline nosy,” he said. “Remember, it’s not nosy if they answer the question.”
He was particular about getting everyone to memorize his key points, such as “caring starts with me” and “letting The Look bounce off me.” By “The Look,” Thibodeau was referring to that disdainful look people sometimes give others to seem cool or when the other person is being to enthusiastic for their liking.
“Caring people are loud and proud. They laugh, they cheer,” he said. “If other people don’t participate, oh well.”
When it comes to negativity, Thibodeau said to just let it roll of you. Don’t respond in kind; instead, just don’t let it affect you. If a person sees someone else being bullied, they should go and see if they can help the victim, rather than being a bystander or responding with negativity to the person who’s bullying.
“Don’t get me wrong, the little digs on the net and the postings, I get they happen … but it’s still up to you whether or not you let it bug you. Is it really an insult?” he said. “You’re still in control. You can’t shut people up; there will always be negative people. Just don’t let it bother you.”
Speaking of not spreading negativity, the next motivational speaker was Saskatchewan Roughrider Scott McHenry, whose message focused on spreading positivity. The most unexpected revelation in McHenry’s speech was the fact that he was actually a person who bullied when he was young, rather than a victim. He spoke to the students about how ashamed he was of that time in his life and how his friends helped him realize what he was doing wrong by speaking up.
“My story is different than a lot, I know. Usually, they tell the story from the side of someone who was bullied. Something I’m not proud of was that I was a person that used bullying behaviour, but my classmates stood up to me and I was able to change,” he said. “To tell the kids that, it is hard to tell them that because I’m trying to teach them not to bully and I stand up there and tell them I was a bully. I really hope that they take away from my story that you can change. It’s a behaviour and it’s not who you are. You can be a better person.”
In between both speakers, for the first time ever, the school division invited a handful of students to give their own presentations on anti-bullying. While they chose various mediums such as a music video presentation or a powerpoint presentation, all carried the same message of standing up to bullying behaviour.
“Bullying is a threat for kids,” said Kevin Garinger, director of education for the Horizon School Division. “It leads to terrible things and we don’t want that for our kids and therefore we go back to the research, what we know is right, and what our kids know is right and that is we’ve got to try and bring an end to that social issue and the only way is through our kids.”
The school division initially began Student Day three years ago in order to engage students in discussions about leadership and bullying and how they could make a difference. Last year, the format of the day was similar to a panel discussion whereas this year it was more interactive with speakers and student presentations.
According to Garinger, he’s hoping that with time, the message being brought to students during Student Day will begin to permeate the rest of the student body on a widespread scale.
“I want to begin with the end in mind. Where do we want to be? I can look 10 years down the road and I can tell you this: if I think bullying is going to be gone from our system, gone from our society, I think I’d be just a little over zealous in trying to think we can stamp that out,” he said. “But what I do think is we can educate our children to know how to deal with it when it does happen.”
