Taking the Fight Out of Bullies
By Shannon Colavecchio, Staff Writer
Originally published in The Palm Beach Post, April 10, 2001
His classmates say he was threatened and harassed, on his way to the bus stop and as he walked through the halls of Woodlands Middle School.
Last week, after a teacher reported finding the 13-year-old's labeled bomb diagram, police searched the suburban Lantana middle school student's home and found a bomb that turned out to be a fake.
The local scare came just a few weeks after 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams opened fire on his classmates at California's Santana High School—killing two and wounding 13.
Williams' classmates say he, too, was fed up with bullies who mocked his big ears and slight frame and stole his skateboard and shoes.
In a post-Columbine era when even idle threats spark panic and nail clippers are considered weapons, educators in Palm Beach County, like others across the country, are zeroing in on bullying as a catalyst for campus violence. Just last month, Palm Beach County school police started an anti-bullying program for third-graders. They point to victims-turned-shooters like Williams as proof that bullying is no longer just an innocent childhood annoyance.
"Bullying is nothing new," said Allison Adler, director of the Palm Beach County school district's Safe Schools Center. "The difference today is, the reactions are much more violent. Fifteen years ago, a kid might have fought back with his fists. Now he comes to school with a gun or a bomb."
And it isn't just "he" anymore.
Last month, 14-year-old recluse Elizabeth Catherine Bush—also sick of mean-spirited taunts—took her father's .22-caliber revolver to her Pennsylvania Catholic school and shot another girl in the shoulder, police said.
Then Bush, in the first highly publicized school shooting by an alleged female assailant, threatened to shoot herself in the head.
"One of the strongest underlying factors behind why kids commit violent acts rests with the issue of real or perceived disrespect," said Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services in Cleveland. "To be constantly bullied, teased, and harassed is demeaning and can be humiliating from the eyes of the victim."
That's why school officials across the country are pledging "zero tolerance" for the teasing, name-calling and physical taunting that have long been considered an oft-unpleasant but traditional rite of passage for adolescents.
New Hampshire and Washington state legislators recently began requiring their school boards to adopt anti-bullying policies and programs, while Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci has pledged $1 million to expand anti-bullying programs that ensure a "caring, nurturing environment" for students.
In Palm Beach County, 12 school police officers assigned to more than two dozen elementary schools last month began an eight-week program that teaches third-graders how to defuse bully situations—either as a victim, an onlooker or the bully.
Through videos, literature, journal-writing, classroom discussions and role-playing, the students are being taught that respect and empathy are much cooler than pushing Joey and calling him "fat face" or "stupid." "It gets the kids talking about something they normally wouldn't because they're ashamed and embarrassed," said school police officer Cindy Newman-Frenier, who is teaching the program at Heritage, Indian Pines and Starlight Cove elementaries.
"Now they're standing up to say, 'This is going on, and we don't like it.' They've been so frustrated, and they just don't know what to do."
The district program also shows teachers, even school safety patrols, how to discourage bullying or stop it once it starts.
"We're trying to change the thinking errors of our bullies," said program developer Kim Mazauskas, a resource teacher in the district's Safe Schools Center. "Many of our bullies are bullied at home, and we can't fix that. But if we can at least build them up in school, we can give them the skills to handle themselves."
Program teaches respect
Through the new curriculum, third-grade victims also are learning to cope with a bully, in a way that doesn't lead to violence.
"Bullying is everyone's problem, but the focus really has to go to the victim," said Mazauskas. "They're the ones picking up the guns."
In St. Lucie County this fall, a new set of videos in middle and high school classes will give a scenario such as a student being bullied or two who may be on the verge of a fight, he said. Then students will see a variety of ways the situation could end.
"Everything we can do to delay that time is in our favor," said Reilly Barnes, school safety specialist.
The district teaches peer mediation and uses a program called Positive Action. Peer mediation trains students to help their peers resolve conflicts. "Hey, let's talk about this rather than you two get in a fight," Barnes said a student might say. Students sit down and talk through their differences.
Positive Action teaches elementary students to have respect for one another and for authority, among other things, and offers rewards to students who behave well.
Both Martin and St. Lucie have Character Counts programs. Schools emphasize character traits such as kindness and respect each month. Last year, the U.S. Secret Service studied 37 school shootings dating back to 1974 and found the most frequent motive was revenge—three-fourths of the attackers described feeling bullied, threatened and tormented.
The California-based National School Safety Center has called bullying the most enduring, underrated problem in U.S. schools. The Secret Service study found as many as 7 percent of America's eighth-graders skip school once a month to avoid bullies.
But only in recent years have the fatal possibilities of bullying become so clear.
Derik Lehman, a Royal Palm Beach High School student, got six months of house arrest and five years' probation after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a plot to "do a Columbine" at his school last year. Police found a map of the school and a diary of shooting and bombing plans in Lehman's house.
Classmates later said some students called 17-year-old Lehman "fat," and "gay" because of a pink sweater he wore to school.
"Bullied kids today see guns as a neutralizer—no matter how small you are, the gun is powerful and grabs attention," said George Batsche, a school psychology professor at the University of South Florida. "It evens the score. That's why we can't afford to just let children settle bullying disputes among themselves anymore."
But some educators worry the anti-bullying movement is an overreaction, one that could lead to paranoid school officials unfairly punishing young students for the kind of "innocent" pranks that were part of their own childhood.
Maybe so, say Adler and Batsche. But they fear there's even greater danger in letting bullies continue unchecked.
"Unfortunately, no, we can't just let kids be kids anymore—not as long as kids can get guns, and words can so easily be converted into action," Batsche said. "If you are an administrator and have the choice between strictly disciplining these bullies' comments and attending a funeral, on which side would you err?"
