About 130 St. Albert students took over an Edmonton mall in a flash Thursday with a dance number designed to bring attention to bullying.
The students, from Morinville and St. Albert Catholic High Schools, Ă©cole Secondaire Sainte Marguerite d'Youville, Vincent J. Maloney Junior High School and Richard S. Fowler Catholic Junior High School, took over the Kingsway Garden Mall's centre court as part of a flash mob with a choreographed dance number at precisely 12:15.
The students wore toques emblazoned with the new campaign's central message “Stand Up” to bullying.
The sudden dance number caught mall shoppers off guard, but the teens got a healthy round of applause when they finished.
Education minister Thomas Lukaszuk was on hand and joined in the action.
He said the new campaign, launched as part of National Bullying Awareness Week, is designed to bring all Albertans into the fight against bullying.
“We have waged a war on bullying and bullying will not be tolerated in any schoolyard and frankly anywhere across Alberta.”
He said the emphasis of the new campaign is on having everyone stop bullying from happening when they see it.
“All of us need to stand up. It is a communal effort. Not one person can do it, the law itself can't do it, students can't do it, teachers can't do it. All of us as a community have to stand up against bullying.”
The flash mob was the first part of the campaign and the students were working on the dance over the last few weeks. The full campaign will include poster and Internet campaigns, as well as television advertisements with the same message.
Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools Trustee Jacquie Hansen was on hand for the launch and said she was pleased to see local students help launch an important project.
“It is our chance to stand up against bullying and do it in a way that kids love to do and that is dancing.”
She said it is important the campaign reaches students in their world and she said the flash mob is a way to do that.
“If we can reach the kids that is the best place to make this happen.”
She said with some Canadian teens resorting to suicide after prolonged bullying the problem has to be urgently addressed.
“We have to help our kids understand from inside that hurting someone else is devastating,” she said. “It has to become a priority.”
