Walking Together to Promote a Positive School Community
Congratulations to Mr. Pisani's Grade 12 Media Arts Students for their winning video entry in the DCDSB's "Kindness is my Superpower" multi-media contest 2016-2017.
National Bullying Prevention and Intervention Week (November 18 - 22, 2024) & Stand Up to Bullying Week (February 2025)
As we work together to create safe and caring school communities, we are reminded to ask God to provide us with the grace, wisdom, and strength to do our part to stand up to bullying in our schools. During Bullying Prevention and Intervention Week, Ontario students, school staff, and parents/guardians are encouraged to learn more about bullying, and its effect on student learning and well-being.
Bullying, in any form, runs counter to Christ’s message of inclusion and His instruction that we treat one another with care and respect. Throughout the week, we will be asking students to take a role in preventing bullying and become upstanders instead of bystanders.
Bullying is defined as aggressive behaviour that is typically repeated over time. It is intended to cause (or should be known to cause) fear, distress, and/or harm to another person’s body, feelings, self-esteem, or reputation. Bullying creates a negative environment for another person. It can happen when there is a real or perceived power imbalance.
Bullying can take different forms. These include:
- Physical – hitting, shoving, stealing, or damaging property
- Verbal – name calling, mocking, or making sexist, racist, or homophobic comments
- Social – excluding others from a group, or spreading gossip or rumours about them
- Electronic (commonly known as cyberbullying) – spreading rumours and hurtful comments by cellphones, e-mail, text messaging, and through social media.
Stand Up to Bullying T-Shirts
St. Mary will celebrate Pink T-Shirt Day on Thursday February 23, 2023
Pink Shirt Day was inspired by events from 2007, when two Grade 12 students in Nova Scotia witnessed a Grade 9 student being bullied for wearing a pink shirt. They decided that something had to be done, so they bought 50 pink shirts and handed them out to other students to wear, which stopped the bullying. Now sixteen years later, we continue this action to send a strong message that bullying should be never tolerated.
May our loving God give us compassion to recognize when others are hurting because of the cruel actions of some and grant us courage to respond with care and creativity.
Report It
Report It is a tool for parents and students to advise us of non-emergency incidents of bullying and other school safety issues (for example vandalism). It is not monitored on a 24/7 basis. If this is an emergency, call 911.
Our top priority is the safety and well-being of all students. All students deserve to learn in a place where they feel safe. We want to know about incidents of bullying and other safety concerns so that we can take action and prevent further incidents from happening. We take issues of bullying and school safety very seriously.
We encourage parents and students to report incidents of bullying or other school safety concerns as soon as it happens. Speak with a teacher or school administration to provide information about the situation.
