This week, Family Channel has been busy inspiring everyone to Stand UP! To Bullying! And what better time to join in than during Bullying Awareness Week? Tonight at 5 p.m., Family will be airing the 2012 Stand UP! Rally, with performances by Victoria Duffield and Mike Tompkins! Along with that, a few speakers will be sharing their personal stories about bullying.
One of these speakers is Jacques St. Pierre. His plan to hold an incredible anti-bullying assembly caught the attention of Lady Gaga, who sent Jacques and his school a personal video message in support of the idea. We sat down to talk with Jacques about his amazing story. Here’s what he had to say:
Can you describe the moment you were first inspired to organize a school assembly against bullying?
I was running for student council president and I thought about what I wanted to change at the school. I thought about how I loved so many things about my school and I had such a fantastic experience there in comparison to my elementary school. In my elementary school, I got bullied. I realized that environment [at my high school] was so open, everyone was so nice and there wasn’t a lot of bullying. I wanted to have an assembly using all the different art forms and really create a voice and an example for other schools. I was inspired by how great my experience at school was and I wanted to make every kid’s experience just as great.
How did the results meet or surpass your expectations?
I was expecting it to be very powerful and inspirational. I had an idea of what I wanted it to look like, but then when I got Lady Gaga’s video, the entire thing changed. I think it got all the kids in the audience more excited about it. It was nice to see. A lot of kids think “Ugh, a bullying assembly. It’s going to be a boring slideshow.” It was such an exciting day and I think all the kids in the audience had a blast.
How did you feel when you received that E-mail from Lady Gaga?
It was an unreal day. I got it at 1 a.m. I had totally forgotten that I wrote the letter to her. The E-mail was from her manager and in the subject line it said: “To Jacques from Lady Gaga”. I figured it was something from the mailing list from her website. I clicked on it and it said “Here’s the video for your assembly. Please click on the link to download.” My immediate thought was that it was fake. I downloaded it and then her face popped up on the screen and she said, “Hello Jacques St. Pierre!” I burst into tears because I am huge Lady Gaga fan. It took me about 10 or 15 times of watching the video to actually hear her message. Once I fully heard her message, I was so inspired to just work and work and work on the assembly and make it so powerful. Having her video play was so important because someone as famous as Lady Gaga sent a video to our school of 1,000 kids. I think it opened a lot of eyes about how important the issue of bullying really is.
Do you still watch that video from time to time?
Yeah. It’s still on my desktop right at the top corner. So whenever I’m feeling down, I watch it.
How did you get involved with Family Channel’s Stand UP! To Bullying Campaign?
They contacted me this summer. It’s interesting because when we were planning the assembly, one of the girls from my student council mentioned Family Channel’s pledge against bullying. She saw it when she was in grade three or four and was now in grade 12, but had been so inspired by it. I was so excited to be a part of this event and get to add to Family Channel’s voice. They have the perfect audience for something like this because it includes younger kids and kids in high school. The younger kids will be the kids standing up to bullying for the next ten years. It’s a great platform.
What do you hope to achieve at the rally?
I am hoping that the kids will leave inspired and feeling like they have the power to stand up. All it took for me was writing one letter to Lady Gaga. I hope they leave with a feeling that they can do anything they want to. Especially for the kids that are going to see it on TV in November. I hope they all tune in. The more people we have standing up against it, the easier it’s going to be to stop bullies.
Thank you, Jacques! Check out Lady Gaga’s video message below and be sure to catch the Stand UP! Rally tonight at 5 p.m. ET/PT on Family Channel!