’Fantastic’ community connection with C.K.’s pink campaign

BY SARA KEDDY

Kings County Register

Community recognition for Central King’s “pink year” have been continuous - “and there’s more coming,” says principal Stephen Pearl. “We’re trying to track it all, and it’s been fantastic to see the community respond to the school.”

In September, students stood up when a Grade 9 student was bullied for wearing a pink shirt. With half the student body wearing pink the next day, Central Kings’ anti-bullying message went worldwide.

The latest local recognition, though, came from two groups who see the longer-term impact of bullying.

CrimeStoppers Nova Scotia president John O’Reilly said the school’s efforts “didn’t go unnoticed. “Bullying is a big problem - and it’s a crime. We’re an alternative to people reporting a crime, and we’ve had calls on our tips line.”

O’Reilly says that information is passed on to school principals who conduct their own investigations, and CrimeStoppers volunteers feel they are ‘preventing something worse” by getting involved.

At the same exchange of plaques February 1, Kings RCMP representatives Cpl. Richard Langille, school liaison officer, and community policing officer Cst. Les Kakonyi presented commendations from Nova Scotia “H” Division Assistant Commander Ian Atkins. “Bullies of the school end up being the people we deal with at assaults and domestic abuse calls,” Kakonyi said.

Pearl says it would be hard to say if there has been a difference in bullying incidents at C.K. since September, but “there is a better feeling in the building. “Kids are using the word more - ‘bullying.’ Last year, they’d have had a problem with a kid or been picked on. Now they call it what it is. “Kids are more aware of situations.”

Grade 12 student Travis Price, who helped lead the pink campaign, agreed the school environment is “the same as it was,” but students as a whole have made an effort to take notice of other bullying they’ve heard of since. “Kids in Halifax stood up for another kid who was being bullied, and another girl was threatened by a boy who was going to throw her out a window onto the rocks,” Price says. “We want to let those kids know to press the issue.”

Price and his friend, David Shepherd, have already represented the school on NBC, at schools around Nova Scotia, at a provincial Legislative recognition and accepted accolades from numerous organizations.

In just the next few weeks, they’ll attend and make a presentation at the week-long Historica Encounters With Canada youth program in Ottawa, visit education students at Laurentian University in Sudbury, launch the Democracy 250 project in Nova Scotia as selected youth ambassadors and mark International Stand Up Against Bullying Day February 15.