Anti-Bullying Campaign at CSOD!

We will be running a contest for our students!  Beginning February 27th and running through to March 3rd our students will be rewarded for showing kindness to fellow dancers and for respecting rules. Each student that is caught doing a random act of kindness next week will receveive a ballot to be placed in a draw to win a CSOD backpack!  We are hoping that by promoting kindness, our students will feel comfortable, confident and become a united team!  We will be drawing the winning ballot on Monday, March 5th.

Many children have a good idea of what bullying is because they see it every day! Bullying happens when someone hurts or scares another person on purpose and the person being bullied has a hard time defending themselves. So, everyone needs to get involved to help stop it. 
Bullying is wrong! It is behaviour that makes the person being bullied feel afraid or uncomfortable. There are many ways that young people bully each other, even if they don't realize it at the time.

Approximately one in 10 children have bullied others and as many as 25% of children in grades four to six have been bullied. A 2004 study published in the medical Journal of Pediatrics found that about one in seven Canadian children aged 11 to 16 are victims of bullying. Studies have found bullying occurs once every seven minutes on the playground and once every 25 minutes in the classroom. 
In the majority of cases, bullying stops within 10 seconds when peers intervene, or do not support the bullying behaviour.

Bullying can have an effect on learning. 
Stress and anxiety caused by bullying and harassment can make it more difficult for kids to learn. It can cause difficulty in concentration and decrease their ability to focus, which affects their ability to remember things they have learned. 
  For this reason, CSOD is instituting an anti-bullying initiative.  We at CSOD will be rewarding our students for random acts of kindness in an effort to promote an anti-bullying attitude.  We feel it is necessary to involve ourselves in this issue in order to provide our dancers with a safe, happy and healthy environment in which to learn and express themselves.