Sunday, March 25, 2001

By Richelle Turner Collins and Keith Boydston
Stars and Stripes

Students at the U.S. elementary and middle school in Gaeta, Italy, are greeted each morning by this poster display at the school's front door which covers points on "What To Do When You Are Angry." School adminstrators in Gaeta and at the U.S. schools in Naples, Italy, said that student bullying isn't a significant problem in their schools.

WÜRZBURG, Germany — Some people think that schoolyard bullies pick on just a small number of nerdy, weak children. Others think that being bullied is part of life.

But should it be that way?

One child in 10 is victimized by a bully’s verbal or physical attacks, according to the National Parent Teacher Association. And bullied children are fighting back by shooting their tormentors.

That is what happened in one of the most recent school shootings, when 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams allegedly shot and killed two students and wounded 13 others in San Diego.

While there have been no similar events at American schools overseas, Department of Defense Dependants Schools are not sitting on their hands waiting for something to happen. Officials say DODDS does not have one universal policy for all schools — except for a zero-tolerance policy against violence and weapons to school — but it does use various programs and strategies to help youngsters handle bullies, violence and peer pressure.

"We won’t tolerate it," Würzburg Middle School Principal Denise Leach said about bullying.

Her school recently implemented Second Steps, a Department of Army-funded program that teaches children how to deal with bullies and develop problem-solving skills.

"What’s good about this program is we don’t just say we aren’t going to do it [bullying]," Leach said. "It teaches empathy."

The program also teaches children how to control anger, teaches them how to mediate problems among peers and walks them through several steps to solve problems.

Leach likes that the problem-solving training can be used in all the children’s curriculum, ranging from math to science.

"I am very excited about Second Steps in our school," Leach said, predicting it will help decrease bullying.

Students speak up

A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent philanthropy group focusing on health-care issues, and Nickelodeon, the children’s entertainment company, questioned 823 children ages 8 to 15 about the problems their age group faces.

Seventy-four percent of 8- to 11-year-olds said teasing and bullying occur at their school, more than smoking or drinking or drugs or sex. In the 12-to-15 age group, the number rose to 86 percent, still higher than substance abuse or sex. And both age groups called teasing and bullying "big problems" that rank higher than racism, AIDS or pressure to have sex or try alcohol or drugs.

Students who have been bullied have a lot to say about those who picked on them. They also say their views have changed, in part, because of the Second Steps program.

"I think bullies are uncomfortable about who they are and pick on other people," said Heather Eisenschenik, a 13-year-old at Würzburg Middle School.

Heather knows about bullies. Elementary school kids picked on her when she was 7 because she had diabetes. Some children tried to pick fights with her — just because she was different.

The bullying stopped, in part, because she ignored their taunts.She has since learned how to deal with bullies, and can tell other teens how to deal with them.

If someone is being bullied, they should talk it out, Heather said. They should figure out what the problem is and solve it, she said.

"I am learning to stand up for myself, and the program they are offering, Second Steps, it helps kids," she said.

Shayle Ulmsted, 14, was teased when she was younger. People made fun of her because she cut her brown hair short, and they didn’t like the way she dressed.

"I felt horrible," Shayle said. "I wanted to go away where no one would tease me."

Writing in her journal helped her deal with bullies and why they picked on her.

"I think they are just people who are just jealous of other people because of what they are," Shayle said.

Second Steps has taught Shayle how to avoid bullies, she said. So did the Drug Awareness Resistance Education (DARE) classes she took in elementary school.

"Just don’t listen to them," Shayle said of bullies. "If you need help, call for help or go to a parent and say, ‘They are bullying me. "

The advice seems to have worked for her. She said the bullying finally ended last year.

The programs DODDS uses to combat bullying vary from school to school, said Harvey Gerry, education program manager for DODDS-Europe.

Some of the programs being are: SAVVY, which stands for Students Against Violence and Victimization of Youth; Ladder of Success; Peer Mediation; and Kindness and Justice Program.

School counselors also seek out children who might be prone to bullying to help them, school officials said.

All elementary school students are taught about the dangers of weapons, violence, drugs and bullying in DARE, which is usually taught by military police officers from their community. Some schools may also offer additional programs to help children deal with peer pressure and bullies.

But even though they may use different programs, school officials say the goal is the same.

"DODDS’ goal is to ensure that students show respect for one another and the students are part of an effort to prevent bullies and harassment in the schools," Gerry said.

In the Naples, Italy, military community, schools don’t use a specific program, but they do have a specific way of dealing with bullying.

"We had a big problem with the fourth- and fifth-graders at the beginning of the school year," said Stephanie Laird, a counselor at Naples Elementary School. "But we immediately identified the problem and came up with a solution."

The bullying occurred at the playground during recess.

"We really had to put our staff out there to identify the kids who were doing it," she said. "It was only a few kids that were ruining it for everyone. But since then, we really haven’t had a problem."

School administrators are also watching the students closely for signs of bullying.

"We’re very aware of the problems that are occurring in the States," said Carol Cressy, the Naples Elementary School principal. "Unfortunately, you’re going to have some students who’ll participate in undesirable activities. But we’re so conscious of it now."

As in Naples, the Gaeta, Italy, elementary and middle school is taking a proactive approach on bullying and has students work among themselves to resolve problems.

"We take a preventive approach when it comes to [bullying]," said Essie Grant, the school principal. "Our counselors go into classes regularly and focus on character education and conflict resolution. We’re letting the children resolve their own problems, and it seems to be working out pretty well.

"Every now and then, we’ll have a small problem flare up. But we really haven’t had any major instances of a student bullying other students — certainly not like you’ve been hearing about in some schools in the States."

An expert’s opinion

Hilda Quiroz is a trainer for the National School Safety Center, an organization created by presidential order in 1984 to address problems with school violence and school safety. She recently finished writing a curriculum for public school students on bullies.

An educator for 19 years, Quiroz has seen how bullying affects children.

"If you ask deep down inside why kids bully, the key issue is because they can do it and get away with it," said Quiroz, who’s a consultant for ETR Associates, an education, training and resource group in Santa Cruz, Calif. "It’s a key part we are not paying attention to."

Bullying should not be taken lightly, she says.

"Bullying is one of the most underrated problems in schools today, and if it is not dealt with, it does not go away, but becomes more severe and more pervasive," Quiroz said in a telephone interview.

Bullying appears to have been a common strand in recent school shootings — including the one Thursday in El Cajon, Calif.: The children were either bullied or bullied others.

Children should be taught about the harmfulness of bullying by kindergarten, she said. And the curriculum, she said, should address three different levels.

• Prevention: Schools should have prevention programs, aimed at stopping kids from becoming bullies.

• Intervention: Help for children who display bullying behavior. The children must know that bullying and casual cruelty are not acceptable.

• Treatment: A way to refer bullying children for treatment.

However, regular intervention probably wouldn’t have helped the two teens who shot their classmates at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, she added.

"There were far more serious problems," she said.

Quiroz said the media and family are also factors in children’s bullying behavior.

Youth grow up on video games, music videos, movies and television shows that entertain with violence, and in which some characters are admired for their ability to destroy others, she said.

And, she said, a family that bullies at home teaches it to the children as a relationship style that appears normal. The kids themselves may think that both behaviors are cool, she said, and try to copy them.

She pointed out that bullying can hurt the bully and the child who is being bullied. Schoolwork can suffer, and victims can get sick a lot and not want to go to school. But Quiroz said some victims will turn to revenge — like the shootings at Columbine. She also said that while not every bully becomes a criminal, sometimes they do.

So what’s the answer?

One solution may lie with the parents.

Another solution could be speaking out about bad behavior.

"We have to rewrite the norms about reporting," Quiroz said. "At an early age if you can tell a child that this is not ‘tattling,’ it’s about telling about an unsafe situation," that would be a step in the right direction.

Charles Andrew Williams reportedly joked with his fellow San Diego students that he would shoot up the school. Most thought he was joking. He wasn’t.

No one spoke up in time. Now, the community is mourning the loss of two students and the 13 wounded are coping with their pain.

RELATED STORY:
          DODDS students sound off on bullies

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