Byline – Melissa Fernandes
Caption – Nanin Kayayan presents a lesson to the ninth grade homeroom class during the first anti bullying week. (by Livia Huang)
PACA recently completed two weeks of anti-bullying lessons, from February 2-14 and provided activities for students throughout their full program from kindergarten to grade 12, in order to fulfill their annual initiative to provide training and support to the student body when facing situations that involve bullying.
Bullying is something that is present in the world, but not addressed well, for a long time. According to the National Library (LINK HERE), bullying has risen in the last years among the teenagers of 14 to 17 years old. Talking to Dr. Cristina Meier, a journalism teacher at PACA, who was one of the child safety team members to plan for anti-bullying week, she explained the importance of addressing this issue to students and teachers alike.
“Last year I was a child safety leader, so I thought about ways to talk about these important topics. I know that here in Brazil there is a focus on anti-bullying in the spring, so I thought that it would be great to start our second semester doing it,” Dr. Meier said.
Dr. Meier also explained to us the importance of talking about bullying at school is something that many schools in Brazil are considering.
Caption: Renata Portella shares a lesson about the motives of bullying to the eighth grade homeroom at 8:00am. (by Livia Huang)
“Bullying is a very issue at all schools, Brazil is one of the top countries for bullying so it’s very important to talk about and never ignore it,” said Meier.
For the first week of anti-bullying emphasis at PACA, homeroom teachers were given special presentations to share with their students in the first ten minutes before classes began.
Fabiana Jhun, a student from 10th grade, learned things about bullying that helped her to understand why someone might choose behavior that is bullying another person.
“I learned that bullies bully others due to their insecurities and jealousy,” said Jhun. “As a result, they make those people suffer from their actions, and give a reason to them to be another bully towards different people, just like an infinite cycle. In order to stop this cycle, victims should have the courage to talk to one person, and the people around these situations should have the grace to talk to them about and care for them more.”
Some of the other lessons for the anti-bullying week included learning how to forgive someone who hurts you and choosing kindness in our interactions with each other.
The second week of anti bullying lessons for secondary students included the normal chapel time on Tuesday for both middle school and high school students. During each chapel. The students joined their discipleship groups for a quiz game show to see how much they remembered about the lessons from the previous week.
Then, Dr. Meier provided specific scenarios for each discipleship group to discuss with their group leaders. These stories that they received about bullying helped students process the following questions: What would be the root of the problem? How should the characters react?
By that, the students had the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of the characters and reflect about each story and discover together how they can avoid it.
With that, it is clear that the anti-bullying effort was well-received in all grades and viewed as really important to the community. The expectations are that all of the school will not forget all of the important topics covered during those days, so that the school may become a safe place for everyone.
