Eastdale Safe School Council - Leadership Training

Eastdale has had a Safe School Team for the past five years and the team has worked toward creating a safe learning environment for all students. Using a "Student-Centred, Student-Driven" approach to solving issues around victimization and bullying, this project aims to provide opportunities for our team to bond early in the year, create strong working relationships and develop leadership skills.

Update (October 31, 2011)

Thus far, Eastdale's Safe School Council has engaged in leadership training through an experiential learning opportunity provided by Cave Springs Camp, located in Vineland, Ontario. There, the team participated in the high ropes course, low ropes course and collaborative problem solving activities. ES2C is a tight group of social activists whose mandate is to create a safe school environment for all of Eastdale's students. Currently, we are writing our own play on the topic of bullying and we plan to present this play not only to our own student body, but also to our feeder schools and as an entry to the SEARS Drama Festival.

Our team has also planned events for Anti-bullying Awareness week (November 14th - 18th) and it is our hope to attend "We Day" on February 29th. Fundraising has begun for that goal.

Update (May 27, 2012)

On May 15th, 2012, Eastdale's Eagle Players, in collaboration with Eastdale's Safe School Council (ES2C) presented their play, Rumour Has It, to their Family of Schools. It was a great success with over 150 grade seven and eight students coming to see the performance. Although the project took the entire school year to write, produce and perform, the students involved learned a lot about cyber-bullying and how to address issues surrounding sexual harassment, dating violence, rumours and gossip. The students are committed, more than ever, to issues of equity and to combating bullying in all forms.

This project allowed students from grades seven through twelve as well as students of all abilities to connect on common ground. One of the sweetest moments came from an actress with special needs when she responded to another student's concern about being bullied online. She said "why don't you just block him?" This simple suggestion has spawned our next campaign which we will call "Just Block It!"