My name is Rose Vair.
I am from Vernon, BC. The topic of bullying is very important to me.
When I was a child I was bullied in elementary school. These are very painful memories that still hurt.
As an adult I have experienced bullying by Ministry staff over questions about my PWD.
When I think about other people being bullied it makes me sad and I can feel their pain. When you are bullied it stays with you your whole life.
Last October I had the chance to do a workshop about bullying at 2015 Interior Self Advocacy Conference.
I was nervous and started to shake. I was happy when it was finished. The audience liked the presentation.
I felt sad when some people shared stories of when they were bullied.
I was pleased that people had good suggestions of things we could do to share information and raise awareness of cyber bullying and other types of bullying.
I talked about the different kinds of bullying. I asked people:
Have you been bullied on-line?
•Have you been pushed or punched?
•Have people gossiped or told likes about you?
•Have you been called names?
•Have you been teased?
•Have you been threatened?
These are all types of bullying and they are not ok. It is against the law to bully other people.
I also talked about what to do if you are being bullied. I said:
• Tell someone you trust. Your teacher. Your mom and dad. The police. A friend.
• Talk to a professional to get help. Talk to someone at Mental Health or at CLBC.
• Do it now. Don’t wait until it gets too bad.
I hope that other self advocates will give their own presentations on bullying. I would like to make a book about this problem.
I hope that people learned they are not the only ones out there who have been bullied.
I also hope that people realize if they are bullying other people.
If you are being bullied tell someone. Tell your care providers, support workers, family, other professionals or somebody in the community they trust.
Please tell somebody – Don’t try and do it on your own.
