| BY
VIVIAN LUONG
Special to The Free Press
Bruce Langford was bullied as a child.
Now 43 and a teacher, he
tackles the issue of bullying in his musical show
called Stand Up Against Bullying.
Langford
wishes shows like his were available when he was
a victim.
"I
don't remember bullying ever being discussed (in
schools)," said Langford, who teaches music at New
Sarum public school in Elgin County.
Langford
sends anti-bullying messages to his younger audience
using sing-alongs, role playing, an interactive
question period and a catchy music video that stars
him and student actors.
"Being
a teacher, I understand it takes a certain thing
to connect with students," he said.
"If
you just come out and talk to them, it's very dull
and boring."
Since
September, he has taken his show to about 50 elementary
schools. He performed three anti-bullying shows
yesterday for pupils at Byron Northview public school.
In
his first show for the junior grades, he introduced
himself as DJ Benny DL and told them the show was
being broadcast live on ATFM radio, a fictional
station that stands for his production company,
A Time For Music.
Langford convinced
most pupils he was an on-air DJ with his radio microphone,
fake commercial breaks and prerecorded messages
from callers (one of the callers was his wife).
Near the end of the
show, one boy in the audience asked Langford, "How
do they call in?"
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The rest of the youngsters
remained oblivious as they were having too much
of a good time, winning prizes for asking a question,
singing and clapping at songs with educational lyrics
and messages such as Speak Up and Be a Winner.
Josef
Prossler, a Grade 3 pupil, said his favourite song
was Stand Up, which opened and closed the show.
"It
was cool. It was neat," Prossler said. "I learned
a lot. I learned you should stand up to a kid against
bullying. There was nothing I didn't like."
Omar
Meddaoui learned a thing or two about bullies by
pretending to be one in a skit.
"I
learned that people bully people just to get their
attention, just to be the boss of them," said the
Grade 3 pupil.
Penny
Geddes, a parent of three children at Byron, liked
what she saw.
"It's
great they have this kind of (show) now," she said.
"All schools should have it."
Stand
Up Against Bullying is available to all schools.
Langford charges $200 a show.
The
Thames Valley District school board covers $50 a
show.
At
Byron Northview, parents were asked to donate $1
a person to help cover the rest of the cost.
For Geddes, it
was worth it.
"In
this case, a loonie went a long way," she said.
"It
was a good show."
The
Thames Valley board sponsored another anti-violence
play yesterday at Banting secondary school.
The
play, Phoenix Rising, deals with issues of isolation,
depression and suicide.
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