Schools try to keep bullying in check
Study backs prevention programs
When Christine Mahoney was 10, a girl started calling her names like "loser." Frustrated by her tormentor, Mahoney said, she began to bicker with other kids.
"I was bullying people because I had been bullied and I wanted them to feel like I had felt before," said Mahoney, now a sixth-grader at South Elementary School in Holbrook.
Mahoney said she finally confided in her mother, who arranged a meeting with the girl's parents that brought an end to the taunting. Mahoney's experience is not uncommon. According to a national survey in 1998, 3.2 million children reported that they had been physically or verbally bullied. But in the aftermath of several school shootings, law enforcement and school officials are teaming up with more frequency to address the issue. Throughout the country, bullying prevention programs alert students to the dangers of bullying and teach them how to deal with such aggressive behavior.Michael Jackman, director of school-based programs in Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating's office, has been talking to students at area schools about bullying for two years. Jackman said the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado called attention to the issue. The two killers had allegedly been repeatedly bullied before they shot 10 students to death and killed themselves. School officials, he said, no longer accept bullying as a natural part of growing up. "The Columbine shooting made people realize that not only is it something that makes schools unsafe, but has long-term impact on people as adults," Jackman said. "It stays with you for your whole life."
Jackman pointed to a recently released national study on bullying that linked bullying to crime, depression and suicide in adults. It also found that bullying prevention programs sharply decrease occurrences in schools.
According to the study, three of 10 students say they have been bullied, which is defined by the Journal of American Medical Association as harassment and/or repeated intentional harm inflicted by a person or a group on someone less powerful.
James Alan Fox, a Northeastern University professor, one of the authors of the study, said the number of bullying prevention programs is growing. He said school bullying has always been around, but the context and culture in which children are raised has changed.
"The kind of resolution they see done by other victims of bullies are much more deadly," Fox said.
Jackman said Norfolk County district attorney's office began its program in spring 2001 to address the concerns of parents and educators. Many districts already have bully prevention programs in place, and use his presentations as a supplement.
On a recent morning, Jackman showed fifth- and sixth-graders at Holbrook's South Elementary School a short video presentation and called students up to participate in a role playing exercise.
Giving children a way to deal with bullies, even if it's by agreeing with them through a verbal comeback, helps defuse troublesome situations, he told the students.
"No one likes you," he told 11-year-old Kiara Mark.
"So?" she fired back. "Doesn't that bother you?" he asked.
"I don't care about what other people think of me," she said, and sat down.
He also gave students a number of techniques -- including avoiding the bully, exuding confidence through body language, or telling an adult -- that are considered effective.
Rob Andrea,12, he his red hair last year attracted the attention of bullies, who called him "Carrot Top," a reference to a comedian. Andrea said he mostly tried to ignore the taunting.
"[Besides] no one knew how good I was at sports," he said. "When they saw how good I was, it stopped."
Andrea's teacher, Denise Redmond, said she frequently discusses with her students the importance of having respect for one another.
"This is when we can still get to them," Redmond said. "They are still in elementary school, but they have that middle school mentality. They are with us all day."
Jackman said that students who have gone through the district attorney's bullying program become role models for younger students. This year, the program has already been held in 10 area schools.
Tomorrow morning, Jackman will visit Merrymount Elementary School in Quincy.
Putting a stop to bullying requires "a collective effort," Jackman said. "Everyone has to dedicate themselves to sending kids that message."
C. Kalimah Redd can be reached at kredd@globe.com.
