Gabriella Amoils – Year 10

Banter versus bullying

On the last day of Machane Ayekah, students were given the opportunity to come up with a topic for discussion, and run a 30-minute discussion independently, while other students had the option to attend. I ran a session, attended by over 30 students called ‘Banter versus bullying – where to draw the line’. We spoke about name calling and jokes that are made by students and if it is okay to say them. Nicknames can bring relationships closer, and can create a bond with one another, but on the other hand the person with the nickname may not even like the name, and is afraid to say something because they think their friends will judge them. What can also happen is that students can use that nickname in the wrong context, and use it in a negative way. In this discussion, we focused on the point that people in our year usually can’t say anything, because they are afraid of what their friends might say. Students in Year 10 would continue saying the name or create a new nickname that was worse than the first one.

Another issue that was raised in our discussion was how incidents from a person’s weekend/personal life can be used for a nickname. This person may not feel comfortable with many people calling them out for something that happened on a weekend that was personal. Even comments that are made after someone says something that is mean shouldn’t be said. We shouldn’t shut people down, or say unnecessary comments, as we may think it is a joke, but the victim may not feel that way, and may be hurt by the comment that was said. Jokes and nicknames can be based on a variety of things such as religion, sexuality, gender and others. But a lot of nicknames in the Year Group are based on appearance, which a person cannot change, and shouldn’t be made fun of for it.

In this discussion, the main word that was brought up a lot was awareness. We came up with the conclusion that we must have awareness of what we say. We need to stop and think if it is okay to say what we are about to say, and whether the other person will like it. If someone is afraid to stand up for themselves, we should talk to them individually and ask them if they like the nickname and if they want us to stop calling them that. Year 10 students will attempt to become more aware with what jokes and comments we say, and if someone says something rude, we should step in and not be bystanders.

Chelsea Rutsetin 

Chelsea, in Year 10, continues to go from strength to strength in her fishing competitions. Please see the awards and trophies Chelsea has acquired in the past few weeks in the photo to the left.

• Chelsea had her local club fishing presentation, where she took out Junior Champion, Ladies Champion and overall Club Champion ( against men, women and other juniors), as well as a number of other trophies.
• Chelsea had her NSW fishing presentation (fishing against people all over NSW) where she took out 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd in Junior girls and 1^st in another length-only division.

Mazal tov Chelsea!