By Nigel Maxwell

School photo project targets bullying

Nov 24, 2014 | 11:33 AM

A project that began as a school assignment is attracting a lot of attention on social media.

Miranda Ewashko and Christine Tarry, are University of Saskatchwan students, attending classes at Saskatchewan Polytechnic campus in Prince Albert. They were asked in their women gender studies class to focus on a problem in society.

Ewashko’s personal experience being bullied as a teen led her to choose bullying as the theme.

“I was bullied and no one ever wanted to talk to me about it. And so the fact that we were able to do this and tell our stories, to get peoples’ faces out there is really something I wish would have been there for me,” she said.

With the help of a photographer friend, Ewashko and Terry came up with a unique way to raise awareness about stereotypes and the impact of bullying.

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The project’s models are covered in the very words that have caused them emotional scars.

Even though the class presentation of their projects scheduled for Wednesday, Tarry said they’ve already receive reaction from the public.

“I’m at 50 likes on Facebook right now and Tumblr is also sharing it,” said Tarry. “I also had one girl who I don’t know message me and thank me basically for caring.”

The women are hoping to go to other schools in the city and talk to students about it.

“A girl in our class said her six year old was being bullied to the point where she didn’t want to go to school. She was different and she would cry. My son is seven years old and so that hit home for me.”

“I didn’t realize that bullying was that far down in age where six-year-olds are not wanting to go to school.” – Christine Tarry.

At that age school should be fun,” said Tarry.

Bini White is one of the project’s models. For his part he was asked to strip down to his underwear and some of the obscene words he has been called in his past were written in black ink on his skin.

“I’ve never gone farther than taking off my shirt for a beach photo so this was certainly different,” he said.

White considers himself to be lucky, having never been too badly bullied. Most of the names he was called were done so in a joking manner. That being said he has seen examples of bullying around him.

“Being in Canada I think we are pretty lucky, most people are nice but of course that’s not true for everybody. I also feel that most people have been on both sides of the fence,” said White.

Ewashko and Tarry are encouraging other people with stories to share, to contact them.

They can both be contacted through Facebook.

nmaxwell@panow.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell