Anti Bullying success by students

Vancouver school principal behind flashmob video gone viral
BY ALAN CAMPBELL,
RICHMOND NEWS
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
YouTube VIDEO: Anti-Bullying Flashmob January 2011 - A YouTube video shows 300 Grade 3 to 12 students at the Oakridge Centre ripping off their jackets to reveal pink anti-bullying T-shirts for an apparent impromptu dance routine. The students are from David Lloyd George elementary and nearby Sir Winston Churchill secondary.
A Richmondite is behind an amazing anti-bullying flashmob video that went viral on the Internet within a couple of days of going live.
The video — showing 300 Grade 3 to 12 students in a mall ripping off their jackets to reveal pink anti-bullying T-shirts for an apparent impromptu dance routine — was the idea of a Vancouver school principal Mette Hamaguchi.
After being posted on Youtube last weekend, the performance at the Oakridge Centre by students from Hamaguchi’s David Lloyd George elementary and nearby Sir Winston Churchill secondary attracted almost 50,000 hits by Wednesday.
The video has also been posted on celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton’s website and the Ellen Degeneres Show — whose presenter is a high profile anti-bullying advocate — has been bombarded by emails requesting she highlight the video with the anti-bullying Pink Shirt Day coming up on Feb. 23.
“When you start this thing from a grass roots level, you don’t really expect it to go much farther than the two schools,” said Steveston’s Hamaguchi, wife of Seafair Minor Hockey Association’s executive director Ken Hamaguchi.
“We’re absolutely overwhelmed by the reaction and we’ve been getting emails from around the world.
“We did not expect it to have the effect that it now seems to be having.”
Hamaguchi sheepishly admitted the flashmob — when a large group of people perform a choreographed routine in a public place in an off-the-cuff manner — was her idea.
“I did come up with the idea, but the whole thing was definitely a team effort,” she said.
“We were at a family function and we got talking about all the negativity with things going viral on social media. I then thought it would be a good idea to do a positive message using social media for a change.
“So I said ‘let’s do a flashmob with an anti-bullying theme.’”
Hamaguchi said her school works hard at re-enforcing anti-homophobic and anti-bullying messages.
And when she asked the dance teacher at the neighbouring Churchhill secondary to help with choreography, it was decided that the two schools join forces.
As for Perez Hilton and Degeneres, Hamaguchi isn’t expecting any more publicity.
“We’re quite shocked that it made it onto Perez Hilton’s website,” she said.
“And we really don’t expect to make it onto the Ellen show.”
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