Teens fight bullies

Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Amherst Middle School is one of thousands of schools in this nation that have taken up the fight against bullies and, undoubtedly like many others, has taken the positive step of getting its students involved.

Using a Peer Leadership group concept and, as Principal Porter Dodge put it, not discussing the issue as anti-bullying but talking instead about “respect, confidence and leadership,” the school and its students are apparently making great headway in dealing with a problem that has confronted the educational community.

But this is no longer the 1950s (unless you’re in our state Legislature) and we understand more today about the seriously negative consequences of not addressing bullying and not dealing with bullies, as the suicide of Phoebe Prince in Massachusetts showed us last year.

One of the keys to the program is encouraging students to be aware of incidents of bullying and to step in to stop it. As eighth-grader Jack Kane told our Dean Shalhoup for our article in last week’s Cabinet: “I think the most important part of this is having the courage to stand up for other kids.”

Make no mistake about it: It takes great courage to stand up for a student who is being bullied, to stand up and say, “Stop!” That middle school students are able to do it, that they really want to do it, is a message of hope. And it isn’t just a message of hope for Amherst Middle School, it is a message of hope for the nation: The Jack Kanes, the Abbey Christensens, the Cassidy Algers who are middle school students today will lead our high schools tomorrow and, we hope, become the adults who will lead our nation years from now.

Because, thanks to programs like Peer Outreach, and thanks to learning early the lessons of courage and commitment, they’ll be prepared to do it.