BEARDY’S & OKEMASIS FIRST NATION - As Darnell Sutherland and Maycie Gardypie sat in a packed gymnasium Thursday morning watching comic DeRic Starlight’s anti-bullying puppet show, both were reminded of the taunts, beatings and other abuse they once endured at school.

“I used to be really skinny. They’d push me around and steal my food,” said Sutherland, 15.

“I’d usually say nothing. Sometimes, I’d try to fight back, but that made it worse.”

Gardypie, 11, said other girls would tease her about her weight or call her a boy.

“That would really hurt. I didn’t want to go to school. Boys are more physical bullies. Girls talk about other people,” she said.

Sutherland said he eventually told his friends. They stuck up for him, and the bullying stopped. Gardypie said the bullying has gradually subsided as her classmates got to know her better.

They say their experience has helped them to speak up when they see others being bullied, and both hoped to learn more during the full-day anti-bullying workshop at the school.

“I want to see how others dealt with it. I want to see how to make a change for other kids,” Gardypie said.

For more than an hour, the voices of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, Bert and Ernie, and even wrestler Hulk Hogan fill the gym at Cst. Robin Cameron Memorial School.