By Joe Whalen
A dozen middle-school students grabbed the spotlight Tuesday at a unique seminar in New Hyde Park and provided an audience of parents, teachers and health professionals with a valuable lesson in bullying.
The young actors, seventh-graders at Jericho Middle School on Long Island, served as members of a mock trial presided over by Dr. Rona Novick, director of clinical programs for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System’s School Mental Health Alliance.
The audience, which would ultimately serve as the trial’s jury, included five school representatives from Queens.
The hypothetical case focused on Becka, the defendant accused of bullying in the second degree. A comic strip displayed on a screen for nearly 100 people in attendance revealed that Becka joined her friend Alexis in harassing Simon, a pitcher, after he dropped a fly ball in the ninth inning of the biggest game of the year.
“You’re such a loser,” Becka said to the hapless hurler after Alexis hatched a plan to exclude Simon from a new team that would feature only smart kids.
The students proceeded to act out the trial, held in the Teaching Center at Schneider Children’s Hospital. Prosecutors and defense lawyers grilled witnesses, the victim and the accused prior to closing arguments. The audience returned a guilty verdict by a 36-8 count.
“Bullying is not a normal part of growing up,” Novick said. “It’s not something that we should expect, live with or tolerate.”
The demonstration illustrated SMHA’s efforts to reduce bullying in schools. In 2000, thanks to $450,000 in funding secured by state Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Westbury), the alliance launched Bully Reduction/Anti-Violence Education.
An additional $200,000 received this year has enabled SMHA to create a league of BRAVE schools, in which each participant will integrate the program’s training, resources and techniques into its curriculum.
More than 1,200 students have taken part in the BRAVE program.
“Since 85 percent of all bullying happens in the presence of peers, work with student bystanders is considered key,” Novick said. “Incidents of student harassment can be cut in half when bullying intervention is combined with teacher and parent education, and establishment of student conduct policies.”
Louise Kapner, director of pupil personnel services for School District 25 in Flushing, Kew Gardens Hills, Whitestone and College Point, attended the seminar with four colleagues. SD 25 has used its own version of harassment prevention — Resolving Conflict Creatively Program — with success for the past seven years. Ongoing workshops teach SD 25 parents how to support the program in their homes.
“We have teachers across the district who implement lessons from a curriculum,” Kapner said. “We have a number of peer mediation programs, with students helping students to resolve conflicts in a non-violent manner.”
The SD 25 group included a quartet of representatives from PS 154 in Flushing: school psychologist Jason Alicea, guidance counselor Tanya Catanzaro, Substance Abuse Prevention-Intervention Specialist Tina Dawn and principal Joan Ratner.
“It resonates,” Ratner said of BRAVE. “It certainly echoes a lot of what we do in peer mediation.”
Bullying appeared to play a role last year in a double murder at a school in southern California. Charles “Andy” Williams, then a freshman at Santana High School, killed two fellow students and wounded 13 others in a shooting rampage. His defense hinged on videotapes supporting his claim that he had been bullied every day for several years.
After his murder conviction, Williams received a prison sentence of 50 years to life. He will not be eligible for parole until 2051.
“Bullying is not something we should look at nonchalantly,” Kapner said. “It has great repercussions for the bullyer and the bullyee.”
For more information about BRAVE, please call SMHA at 470-4846.
Reach reporter Joe Whalen by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
