RRHS students combat bullying

By Jessie Bourre
Contributor

Last week at Rainy River High School students took a stand against bullying and partipcated in what was called “Mix It Up” week.
RRHS student council members ran the event with various activities going on. On Monday there was an introduction assembly held in the gym. Student council president, Mitchell Haw, presented an informational slide show and addressed the students about the activities that were going to be happening during the week. Also at the assembly students were given a free pink t-shirt as long as they agreed to sign a contract committing to a bully free life. Students wore their t-shirts on Wednesday as part of the official school board wide anti-bullying day.
Also on Monday, the drama club put on a comedy show in the lounge. They held various drama games such as hitch hiker, build a scene and lines in a hat. They also invited members from the audience to participate in the show.
The following day began with Super Awesome Bingo. Students were given a 10X10 bingo card which had different names of student in the school on it. The goal was to cross off a full house on the bingo card. In order to do this the students had to ask the students on their card a question of their choice. The main objective of this activity was to get the students talking to students they don’t usually talk to. At lunch the whole school was open to a mini art exhibition put on by the art class. Also students were able to bring in their musical instruments and participate in live music.
In addition to it being Pink t-shirt day on Wednesday, there was a photo booth set up in the school lobby, a burrito buffet at lunch, karaoke in the student lounge and a free hug both put on by students, Spencer Brown and Jannelle Andy.
Thursday another school wide Mix It Up game began called “Just Do It.” The entire school was given a name tag with a phrase on it such as “Have a thumb war” or “Skip down the hallway” or even “Act like a monkey.” During the day when someone told you to “Just Do It” you had to do what your name tag said and the person that asked signed your name tag. The idea of this game was to once again get the student mingling with students they don’t usually mingle with.
Friday classes were shortened at RRHS and at 11:50 am all students and staff gathered at the Recreation Centre. The students and staff treated to a free steak and walleye lunch provided by student council and cooked by the Stratton Café.
After lunch the students participated in several fun activities before keynote speaker Jason Burnstick, from Winnipeg, arrived.
Burnstick is a First Nations performer known for his ability to freely move from one stype of music to the next. He was a 2007 Juno Nominee, CAMA Award Winner and 2009 DORA Award Nominee. Jason talked to the students about his hard upbringing and journey of how he became a musician. Burnstick talked about how he used his difficult childhood as an excuse to be violent and how he got help. The main message of Burnstick’s performance was to be true you who you are and no matter how bad life gets you don’t have let it bring down your spirit. His presentations conclude with him playing some of his music with his acoustic guitar and double neck guitar.
After Jason Burnsticks presentation, Mitchell Haw presented the “Born This Way” video to the students. The week before student council took photos of every student in the school and put together a video to the music “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga. The video was to show students how great inner beauty is and that everyone is beautiful in their own. To wrap up the event Mitchell Haw and Alexis Sharp presented prizes to student who took part in events during the week. Courtney Hansen was the winner of a Flip video camera from the Super Awesome Bingo and Cassie Westover was the winner of the Just Do It game with 36 signatures.