Gabrielle Jackson from Bellevue Hill Public School beamed with pride as she was announced the winner of the 2017 'Say No to Bullying' Primary School Poster Competition.
Her poster, featuring a pair of linked hands juxtaposed with text reading "we're all in this together", was selected from more than 3,000 entries.
Posing the question: "Why can't everyone respect each other?", Jackson's message seems simple enough.
However, it's one that has risen from complicated experiences for the Year 6 student.
Gabrielle was in Year 3 when she first started seeing a psychologist.
Continuous bullying in the form of verbal abuse and intimidation lead to panic attacks and reclusive behaviour, prompting Ms Jackson and her family to seek external help.
"I was bullied from Year 3 to about half of Year 4 and it made me feel really insecure and scared. I just wanted it to stop", Gabrielle told SBS.
Gabrielle says she was given strategies to put the hurtful words from her bullies out of her mind.
Though she stopped her consultations after six months, Gabrielle says she continues to employ these techniques to "rise above" challenges.
"Bullying has made me more confident and stronger, and now I know how to stand up to mean comments without being rude. I can rise above it", Gabrielle said.
School anti-bullying programs
Gabrielle says she also received a lot of support from her parents and school.
"Every week we have bullying sessions - that is a part of our Resilience Program. It teaches us things like how to spot, stop and react to bullying", Gabrielle told SBS.
However, 16-year-old Cellina Occelli, says not all schools are proactive in taking a stance against bullying.
Cellina's most vivid bullying experience was being locked out of class for an entire session.
Unable to enter the classroom, Cellina sat outside the door, crying.
She says the classroom teacher didn't even bother to let her into the class.
"It was pretty horrible to know that my mentors and teachers as well were turning their backs on me", she told SBS.
Cellina believes her Italian and Uruguayan backgrounds made her an easy target for bullies and thinks students of different ethnicities are "definitely" more prone to bullying.
"In Queensland there is no multicultural air, like in Sydney, so things that I'd even bring to lunch they didn't have there," she said.
"When I got tan in summer they would call me an immigrant just because I didn't look like them."
Cellina, now living in NSW, says the lack of a respectful environment and sense of community in her Queensland school made it difficult to make any progress on the bullying issues.
'Schools must intervene'
Borenore Public School in central western NSW, received the award for 100 per cent participation in this year's poster competition.
Borenore principal of 20 years, Ruth Harris, says her school encouraged students to participate in the competition as a way of creating a platform to discuss the issue of bullying.
"All out students, from Kinder to Year 6 participated, and it was a good opportunity for us to explain what bullying is. If there are cases of bullying we're unaware of, sometimes it comes out in artwork", Mrs Harris told SBS News.
Being a small school of around 43 students, Mrs Harris says there are not many incidents of bullying.
However, Borenore Public School has enlisted the help of the Life Education Van's bullying program to teach students about the issue.
Mrs Harris says working together with the community and families is essential as all parties must take an active approach to curbing bullying.
"It's very important that schools, teachers and parents intervene. The longer the bullying goes on, the harder it is for all students and gives the bully more power which has a detrimental effect on students."
Gabrielle Jackson's winning entry. Source: SBS News
Helping drive the conversation
Cellina says her parents didn't notice that she was being bullied until a few months after.
Her mother, Patricia Occelli, joined Interrelate - the organisation behind the poster competition - in order to help her two children.
She said she was "emotionally devastated" to find out they were being targeted.
"What I found in both cases was that the school has dropped the ball on the issue, they weren't paying attention or were simply excusing it as childish behaviour."
Now CEO of Interrelate, Mrs Occelli is helping drive the discussion surrounding bullying in schools.
She has organised various school events to spread awareness about bullying, while giving students strategies on how to stand up to perpetrators and seek help.
"The important thing is to understand what is happening and to really listen to them and make them feel safe enough to have a conversation with you. Then, as parents, we have to take it to the school and so on."
*Readers seeking support can contact Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 or Lifeline on 13 11 14
