Lake Cowichan students build wall against bullying

Ashley Pastor stands with the Encouragement Wall in the girls bathroom at LCSS. The wall was started by the writer of an anonymous note. Pastor and Destiny Skramstad have since relocated the wall so that all students can add to it and benefit from it.

Tamu Miles

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The death of Amanda Todd, the Coquitlam youth who took her own life as a result of bullying, has put the issue squarely in the spotlight.

Students at Lake Cowichan Secondary have inadvertently come up with a unique way to help deal with the problem.

Ashley Pastor and Destiny Skramstad found a note left on the wall in the school bathroom offering encouragement and support for anyone finding themselves as the victim of bullying.

It was anonymous and inspiring. Then more notes of encouragement and understanding were soon added.

“We really liked the idea of encouraging people and sitting them down and telling them that, yeah there are bullies out there, but we really want them to come to their friends and trust in us,” said Skramstad.

But Pastor and Skramstad say they didn’t think it was fair that these words of encouragement were only being displayed in the girls bathroom.

So they decided to take the “Together We Stand” wall to the next level and bring it out to where the whole school could benefit from it.

“We decided that we wanted to take this on as a leadership project and make a wall in the school that people can post anything positive about staying strong and being there for each other,” said Skramstad.

Words of encouragement are now featured in the hallway beside where the lunch program takes place every day.

Students will have access to paper, tape, and pens at all times so they can make their own additions.

These students have also created a Facebook page to allow for an online extension of the project.

“What’s great about it is you can post onto our [Facebook] wall and we’ll put it up [on the school wall] for you,” said Pastor.

“We encourage anybody within our community to come down here, even just to look at it,” said Pastor. “Because, I know just reading through the posters we’ve made already it just makes you feel happy and good about yourself, and that’s our goal, is to make people feel good.”

To “like” Pastor and Skramstad’s Facebook page, search “Together we Stand.”