Stand Up Awareness Week Against LGBTI+ Bullying

10 Dec 2020

Last week St. Benildus College held our annual LGBTI+ week. There were many activities promoted around the school all week and everyone got involved, which was great to see! One of the main whole school activities was asking staff and students to make origami butterflies, which we then stuck up along the corridors. Each year group represented a different colour on the pride flag and it was lovely to see such vibrant colours along the corridors. We had many teachers teach lessons with an LGBTI+ theme and encouraged students to ask any questions they may have. We are always educating ourselves and so if you are unsure of anything, it is always ok to ask. We had a timeline of key moments in LGBTI+ history in the foyer and a creative art & music wall where students were invited to scan QR codes to access different videos. Class 4.4 were a great help in making colourful and creative posters highlighting some important statistics people might not know. For example, did you know that only 58% of Irish secondary schools participated in Stand-Up Awareness Week in 2019? All students were invited to participate in a crazy sock day on Tuesday and we had some fantastic colours walking the corridor! The staff were asked to wear their brightest colours on Friday, which just so happened to coincide with our annual Run for Life Charity initiative. As there was an overlap this year with Run for Life and our LGBTI+ week, we decided to merge the two events and invited the 3rd years to participate in a Colour Run! Although the weather was cold and wet, this did not dampen their spirits and the lads really had fun throwing powder over one another! As always we ended each day with music that is representative of famous LGBTI+ artists. We played songs by Lil Nas, Queen, Years & Years, George Michael and Sam Smith. The tunes were a great way to end the day and got some of the students dancing in the corridors! This event has been running annually for 5 years now and what is most heartening to see is that each year, more and more staff and students volunteer their time to help promote it. It is a constantly evolving event and the more voices and input we get, the better it is. Many thanks to all the staff and to the 6th Year prefects who gave up their free time to help. For photo’s of the week, please check out the gallery.