The Government of Virgin Islands is providing outlets for students to stimulate positive behaviour and reduce bullying.

The Ministry of Education and Culture will be promoting a week of activities including the launch of an Anti-Bullying Awareness Video Competition for students of private and public schools. The activities will be held under the theme ‘Take a Stand, Lend a Hand’ and will be spearheaded by the Guidance and Counselling Unit within the Ministry that will ensure that every school in the Territory participate in the endeavour.

The objective is to promote awareness to the problem of bullying, which is an aggressive and repeated behaviour that can be physical, verbal or relational. Efforts will also be made to demonstrate how students can resolve challenging situations and restore relationships.

Minister for Education and Culture, Honourable Myron V. Walwyn said bullying is a worldwide problem that is occurring among school children as young as six years old.

He added, “The impact that bullying has on an individual is detrimental both physically and emotionally. It is bad for everyone involved and it is time that we address this situation that is festering within our community, especially amongst our school children.”

Acting Chief Education Officer, Mrs. Jillian Douglas-Phillip said that the purpose of the video competition is to give students the opportunity to be creative and to promote awareness while making an effort to reduce bullying, via video.

Mrs. Douglas-Phillip further stated, “Our hope is to assist students to utilise their experiences and talents, as an opportunity to display a sense of school pride, as well as to stand up against bullying.”

This competition will depict the theme in a video format. The video should not exceed the maximum time of two minutes and must be emailed to Ms. Shaunice Leonard at shauniceleonard47@hotmail.com or Sylvester Smith at sysmith@gov.vg no later than Tuesday, February 16.

Videos will be posted onto the Government’s Facebook page and aired on various television spots. The competition will be judged based on the amount of ‘likes’ each primary and secondary school receives via Facebook. The winner will receive a prize and the winning video streamed on television.

Interested participants should contact Ms. Leonard at 284-441-2046 for more information.