Kids sign pillows to stand up to bullies

Kids sign pillows to stand up to bullies

Many schools around the country have implemented bullying awareness programs.

OLD FORGE, Pa. (AP) — Ninth-grader Michael Matisko took a stand against schoolyard bullying last month.

He signed a pillow.

“I think it’s a pretty negative thing to do to anyone,” said Michael, who put his name to one of the symbolic sleep cushions because, he said, he knows bullying happens in his school.

A group of Old Forge High School students stopped their peers in hallways and classrooms on Feb. 15, asking them to sign pillows as a pledge to stand up against bullying.

The theme echoed one from a bullying awareness video shown to students earlier this week: “For some kids, not being bullied is just a dream.”

Old Forge was one of 220 schools worldwide to participate in the first International Stand Up To Bullying Day said Bobby Cooper, director of Bully Help Initiatives Inc., which organized the event urging schools to educate students on the subject.

In Old Forge, the school’s Peer Mediation Team 19 students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades who were nominated by teachers to help their peers with problems split up in their grades and vied to get the most signatures from other students.

The school has 455 students in grades seven through 12.

“Bullying is one of the main reasons we have a peer mediation team. It is a problem. It happens a lot,” said Jen Churla, one of the coordinators for the peer mediation team.

She said many students, mostly in seventh and eighth grades, have come to the mediators because they were being bullied.

School officials say the bullying they’ve seen mostly involves name-calling.

“They come to us before it turns into a [bigger] problem,” said Stephen Exeter, a senior peer mediator.

Most students approached by the mediators, who wore “We got your back” shirts, answered the plea to sign the pillows.

“Bullying is a widespread problem, but it’s not a new problem. What is relatively new is the awareness it’s receiving,” said Dr. D’Arcy Lyness, Ph.D., a child psychologist and medical editor for KidsHealth.org.

It has become so widespread that many schools across the country have implemented bullying awareness programs, she said.

Abington Heights Middle School, for instance, recently unveiled an anonymous bullying referral system that includes paper forms that can be dropped into “bully boxes” around the school and online forms that can be accessed through the middle school’s Web site. The program was developed in response to the results of a bullying survey conducted two years ago, Vice Principal Michael Elia has said.

He said out of 1,155 students, 900 said they had witnessed bullying at some point but didn’t know what to do about it.

Bullying can take on various forms, including intimidation, threats or teasing to the point where kids feel humiliated. It also can be physical.

“Bullying can affect kids’ sense of safety ... and it can affect their self-esteem and confidence,” Dr. Lyness said.

But there is a strength in implementing bullying awareness programs, she said.

“Lots of kids experience bullying, a lot admit they have been bullies, but huge amounts of kids have witnessed bullying. All three groups have something important to learn and receive from these bullying awareness programs,” she s