Dear Editor,
Re; “Erase bullying with pink power,” News, Feb. 19.
Congratulations to Richmond students Catelyne Ma and Sherry Liu on winning The 2016 ERASE Bullying promotional poster designs for their creative efforts to promote anti-bullying.
So often the biggest thrust of social changes comes from young people who refuse to continue with the status quo that we, the older generation, have accepted as normal.
How many of us, through our school years, have participated in bullying, either singly or as a group, and have felt the guilt all these years?
Well, Ms. Ma and Ms. Liu have done something about it, and I would like to offer a suggestion to them to not stop there but to advocate for those young people who suffer the worst bullying and quite often violence, those who belong to the LGBTQ community.
Richmond, along with Coquitlam, are the only two school districts in the Lower Mainland that do not have any gay/straight alliance clubs.
Members of the Richmond School District have been quoted as saying “the reason we don’t have any of these clubs is because no one has asked about them.”
I would suggest, that the board of education put the horse before the cart, and if not promote them, at least suggest them, to the principals, as they have been well received by both gay and straight students elsewhere.
Then, Richmond could take its place along with the more progressive school districts of the Lower Mainland.
Alan Halliday
Richmond
