Five Summerland students have created a video about bullying which has been posted online.
The video is called, Being More Than a Bystander. It was filmed in the back alleys of Summerland.
With camera operators Pierre Holmes and Colton Worts well hidden, Teaghan Trewhitt proceeded to pretend to bully Navi Raike and Ryan Antonovitch.
Since the video was posted on YouTube, the five have been contacted by television, radio and newspapers, including Global TV, CBC Radio and The Province.
The purpose of staging these events was to see how many people would intervene if they saw someone being bullied.
“We had a speech given to us by Angus Reid, here at the school and he inspired us to make this video,” explained Holmes.
“He was saying that you can wear a pink shirt, but is that really going to help if something were to occur? Would you do something about it or would you just sit there in your pink shirt that says, stop bullying,” added Worts.
The reactions they got from people on the street were mixed.
“There were more people who turned a blind eye to it, than those who actually stopped to help,” said Holmes.
Speaking about the people who did take action he said,
“They were seen as a hero in our eyes.”
It was also explained that there were some who stopped to help, but did not want to be featured in the video, resulting in some lost footage.
In regards to bullying in general, although it does still go on, “It’s gone down a bunch,” said Worts.
This group also has plans for future endeavours.
“We want to do more of these social experiments, like feeding the homeless, bringing awareness to racism and stuff like that,” Holmes said.
Their hope is that people will watch and share the videos they produce and subscribe to their channel on YouTube called ColourTV.
If you know a positive story about someone in our community, contact Carla McLeod at carlamcleod@shaw.ca or contact the Summerland Review newsroom at 250-494-5406.