Tyler Lewis and Mia Sugihara are two “Blair Guardians,” leadership students who spend time on the playground at Blair elementary looking for acts of kindness and supporting other students.
When they see someone doing something kind, they will write it on a pink heart and post it in the main foyer of the school — they like to catch students in the act of kindness.
“If we do something very kind, we’ll inspire others to be kind,” said Mia.
But students shouldn’t be doing acts of kindness just for a heart, Tyler said.
“If people are always mean and not doing something to help others, people won’t want to work with them,” he said.
Mia and Tyler said they usually see good behaviour, but if they see some bad behaviour, they see what’s wrong, if they can help and seek out an adult.
The idea of Blair Guardians came from a group on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver called the Guardian Angels, explained Andrei Sala, the school’s vice-principal.
When bullying occurs, he added, there are usually three actors: the bully, the victim and the bystander, and at Blair, there has been a lot of education about not being the bystander, the one who stands by and doesn’t intervene in a bullying situation.
“What we find with Blair Guardians, it helps to delete the bystander role,” he said.
While Pink Shirt Day will be celebrated next week at Blair, anti-bullying is the focus for the entire month. But, Sala said, the conversation about bullying should never stop.
