Olweus anti-bullying program kicks off at Westminster School

By Kjell Wickstrom

GLENORA — An anti-bullying program at Westminster School aims to give students a safer school experience.

The program, called Olweus, started in Norway 25 years ago, with Westminster School being the first in Edmonton to adopt it.

“I think the goal of this program is really changing the attitudes towards bullying,” said Karen Kondor, a parent representative on the Olweus committee at Westminster.

“The first part of the program is really learning what defines bullying, what does it look like?” said vice-princial Maureen Winter.

“Then [comes] changing our behaviour around it, and the student’s behaviour around it,” she said.

The program centres on weekly class meetings where students and teachers openly discuss bullying and its effects. The school also conducted a survey last year that helped them learn what kind of bullying was occurring at the school.

“I think it’s hearing what the kids have to say, and responding to it,” Winter said.

The school schedule was rearranged to give students an opportunity to talk about problems in their weekly meetings, and a bank of lockers is being moved to prevent unwanted confrontations in an overly crowded hallway.

“Some people just need to be heard, instead of hiding everything inside,” said Felicity Holowach, a Grade 7 student at the school.

Bullying is a widespread problem that many experience at some point in their lives, be it in or outside of school. Different people experience bullying in different ways— from physical confrontations to exclusion— and many people don’t necessarily recognize the signs.

The consequences of bullying can be serious, including poor grades, depression and violence in school. Parents, teachers and students need an effective way of dealing with bullying and, more importantly, prevent it from happening altogether.

Today’s students have to deal with bullying in ways that their parents and teachers never had to. Cyberbullying is a new problem that many adults have little to no experience with.

Bullying through Facebook or text message is becoming more prevalent. Cyberbullying is also much harder for police to control, as it can happen anywhere.

“We don’t have the research that tells us how to respond to it,” Kondor said.

Talking about bullying and getting it out into the open seems to have reduced some the bullying experienced by students.

“People on Facebook, they’ve realized what they’ve been doing and people are being nicer,” said Trystan Hardy, a Grade 9 student at Westminster School.

Many students did not know how to deal with bullying before the program began, and have since become better equipped to deal with it.

“You felt useless, like you couldn’t do anything,” Hardy said about seeing bullying occur prior to Olweus’s implementation.

“You feel safer now,” Holowach agreed.

The program places the responsibility to stop bullying on students, parents and teachers by getting them to talk openly about it.

“We have to stop the cycle of bullying,” said Jared Little, a Grade 8 student.

The school says it will continue the anti-bullying campaign, with weekly class meetings and kick-off events at the beginning of each school year.