Canadian Teen Spreads Positive Post-Its In Response To Bully; Gets Reprimanded For Littering

A Canadian high school student was reprimanded for responding to a nasty bully by leaving positive hand-written messages around her school, the Toronto Sun reported.

Last month, Caitlin Prater-Haacke, of Alberta, received a Facebook message telling her to kill herself after someone broke into her George McDougall High School locker and used her iPad.

So instead of letting the bully get to her, the 11th grader wrote encouraging and cheerful messages on 800 Post-Its and left them around her school in Airdrie City on Oct. 6. Students arrived to find their locker doors filled with messages like "You're beautiful," "Love yourself," and "You're awesome."

"Bullying is not necessarily addressed, and people get really down about it, I wanted to do something positive - it was about due time," Prater-Haacke told the Toronto Sun.

But school officials didn't find the messages so uplifting. Prater-Haacke was taken out of her classroom and told that school janitors were not there to clean up her mess, the girl's mother, Nicole Haacke, told the newspaper. A teacher also yelled at Caitlin for the littering.

Haacke expressed outrage about the incident on a Facebook page named Airdrie Moms. The group then created another Facebook page to promote Positive Post-It Day.

Support for Prater-Haacke grew, culminating in the Airdrie City Council passing a measure declaring Oct. 9 Positive Post-It Day, CTV News reported. Social media exploded with hand-written messages of love and kindness.

One George McDougall High School student, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Toronto Sun that many students kept Prater-Haacke's notes because they made them feel good about themselves.

Airdrie police are now looking into the locker break-in.

Tags

Bullying, Cyber Bullying, Anti-bullying, Alberta