The Honourable Jeffrey E. Lantz, Minister of Education, participated in a peace walk this morning at École François-Buote in recognition of the province's second annual Verbal Abuse Prevention Week.
"As a society, we are becoming more aware of the effects of verbal abuse," said Minister Lantz. "The Department of Education is committed to raising awareness of the negative impacts of verbal abuse and working towards its elimination in our schools, in our school yards and in society. I wish to commend the students and staff at École François-Buote for initiating the Peaceful Mile project."
École François-Buote designed its Peaceful Mile activity as part of its year-long conflict resolution project under the PEI Community Mobilization Program. Students at the school developed a message of peace and delivered it to students at Birchwood Intermediate School on Monday. Teachers, staff, parents and community members, along with students from Colonel Gray Senior High School wore white shirts (the colour associated with peace) and joined the students on their walk.
Students from across PEI are encouraged to develop their own message of peace and forward it to École François-Buote during Verbal Abuse Prevention Week. All of the messages developed during Verbal Abuse Prevention Week will be delivered to Minister Lantz later in October.
"We hope that with this project, we will show Islanders that together we can make a difference," said École François-Buote principal Darlene Arsenault. "We encourage all Islanders to work towards preventing incidents of violence and verbal abuse. Our school community will be working on our conflict resolution project throughout the school year."
Verbal Abuse Prevention Week is designed to promote safety and non-violent ways of acting in schools and the community. Schools across PEI are participating in Verbal Abuse Prevention Week in a number of ways; including school assemblies and poster and poetry contests.
"We are confident that Verbal Abuse Prevention Week activities will help influence students to stop and think about their words and actions and choose better ways of solving problems," said Minister Lantz.