Trying to put bullies in their place

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

The Nevada Bully-Free Task Force recommends parents whose children are being bullied take the following steps:

Eddie Miller, a seventh grader at Harney Middle School in northeast Las Vegas, knows what it's like to be bullied -- and knows he has to control his temper when he is.

"It's not cool to be a bully, not cool at all," Eddie said Tuesday as he walked home from the bus stop after classes. "I act like I don't care when kids make fun of my clothes or my hair, but sometimes I want to blow my top."

Schoolyard bullies are the target of a new campaign by the Nevada Bully-Free Task Force, led by Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and state Superintendent Jack McLaughlin. "Bully-Free For Me" will focus on students in grades two through eight, with special in-class activities for third graders.

"If we can get to the kids early on, we can interrupt the cycle," said McLaughlin. "No child should have to go to school being afraid."

Hannah Woodruff, also a seventh grader at Harney, said the campaign sounded like a good idea. Teasing and making jokes at someone else's expense is a cruel way to have fun, Hannah said.

"It makes me sad when I see kids getting picked on, sometimes I try and break it up," Hannah said. "They listen to me because I'm tall, I guess."

Students at Laura Dearing Elementary School, near the Boulder Highway corridor, were the first in the state to take a pledge promising to not only treat other students appropriately but also to report incidents.

The campaign emphasizes that students should look to teachers or parents to intervene.

"If someone is getting into a fight, you should go get help," Clark County School Superintendent Carlos Garcia told the Dearing students. "You don't need to solve everything."

Bullying, which can include name-calling and physical abuse, isn't new, but in recent years incidents have increased in severity both locally and elsewhere in the United States, educators say. In some extreme instances, the victims of the harassment have responded by killing their tormentors or themselves.

A nationwide study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found 55 percent of children in grades three through six said bullying was a problem at their school, with the percentage jumping to 68 percent for grades seven through 10.

"We have to do whatever we can to eliminate this kind of harassment," said Moises Denis, treasurer of the Nevada PTA, which is co-sponsoring the campaign. "Kids need to feel there's something positive they can do to protect themselves and others."

According to the 2001 Nevada Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 13 percent of middle school students and 11.5 percent of high school students said they rarely or never felt safe at school. Such high school students are more likely to earn poor grades, twice as likely to report feeling sad or depressed and twice as likely to attempt suicide, the survey found.

Middle school students who do not feel safe at school are three times as likely to report carrying a weapon to school and twice as likely to report being involved in fights, according to the survey.