The City of Surrey took a stand against bullying Wednesday during an awards presentation on Stop Bullying Day at the Surrey RCMP main detachment.

Mayor Dianne Watts, alongside Chief Supt. Bill Fordy and representatives from the Surrey school district, handed out awards to the winners of the second annual Stop Bullying Film Contest, which received 29 entries from more than 200 students.

The awards were broken down into three categories: Junior (Grades 6 and 7), Intermediate (Grades 8 to 10) and Senior (Grades 11 and 12).

Students from Maple Green Elementary, L.A. Matheson Secondary and Enver Creek Secondary for their films, respectively titled "A Miserable Life," "Words Can Harm" and "Hidden Words Never Heal."

"Have you ever heard of when you say something nice to a person and they tell you, 'You made may day?' I thought, what would happen if it was the opposite?" said Marlio Herrera Lira, a sophomore at L.A. Matheson who wrote, directed and produced the winning film for the Intermediate category.

"What would happen if, at the beginning of the day, someone said something really bad or really offensive?"

Inspired by other short films he's watched, Herrera Lira developed the concept of a bully wearing a pair of glasses and seeing the pain that her victim has endured.

"The glasses resemble a way to open your eyes," he said.

The video also showed why some people bully and ways to prevent bullying.

"For bullies, a lot of the time, there are things going in the back of their minds that are making them bully and we just wanted to see why," said Dominique Wakeland, the L.A. Matheson student who portrayed the bully.

Earlier in the day, Mayor Dianne Watts visited Grade 2 and 3 students at Port Kells Elementary to discuss the effects of bullying.

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