Gladstone school students are sending a message to the community that bullying will not be tolerated.
was proud to unveil a new mural at the school – devised and created by Year 11 students – which reflects on the serious social issue.
The mural features school colours, a silhouette image of a young person, Gladstone’s postcode, and the slogan ‘Bullying no go’.
Supervising teacher, Christine Manning, said the mural developed from an assessment piece.
“Students were required to plan and create a collaborative mural. Their mural had to support and/or inform the public on a topical social issue,” Christine said.
“The students researched contemporary street artists then worked together to come up with a theme.
“The image in the mural represents a person having fallen victim to bullying, sitting alone with their hood up not wanting to face the world, nor their issues.”
One of the students, Ben Webb, hopes the mural will “inspire victims of bullying to speak up about their troubles”.
“Though we produced many amazing ideas for the mural during our brainstorming sessions – including Gladstone’s problems with drugs and pollution – settling on bullying seemed to be the right choice due to the endless harassment some young people face on a day-to-day basis,” Ben said.
“The Carinity students went with bullying because they see it as a very relevant and important issue – one they would like to bring attention to and hopefully make some impact in eradicating.
“We are all extremely proud of our hard work and hope that the message is sent out to everyone.”
Sunshine Coast-based street artist, Sarah Sculley, worked with the students at the school for two days to help them pull their ideas together into a cohesive and powerful artwork.
“The students loved the project and worked really hard with large scale stencils, chalking designs, painting, spray painting and then applying an anti-graffiti coating,” Christine said.
“They were so proud of their work as were all the students and teachers.”
It’s not the first time Carinity Education Gladstone students have made a stance against bullying.
Previously students at the school concerned about the impacts of online harassment created , dubbed The Infinity Project.
