Students Stand Up to Bullying

He’s an eighth grader now, but Elijah Gray can remember when he first entered Red Bank Middle School in fourth grade. It was about the same time he found out that something as insignificant as a haircut was enough to make you the object of ridicule.

See, for Gray, 13, it never occurred to him to think it strange that his dad cut his hair. That is, until he told a fellow classmate, who proceeded to mock him for the remainder of the year for not going to a barber like everyone else.

Now, Gray, along with 44 of his classmates, is standing up to bullying and hoping to put an end to it by identifying the problem as it occurs and spreading awareness that picking on someone, for whatever reason, won’t be tolerated.

Called, the Anti-Bullying Squad, the student-led group is new this year and is proving to be an unintended compliment to recent State legislation called the Harassment, Bullying, and Intimidation (or HIB) Law that requires administrators to report, investigate, and document cases of bullying in schools.

“Students don’t always want to put themselves out there,” he said at a conference table in the middle school main office Thursday. “We have to reach out to the students, not just wear the badge, but show (we’re involved).”

Superintendent Laura Morana said ABS isn’t intended to circumvent the bullying legislation or act in its place – schools are still obligated to follow through on any reported incident of bullying – but to give students a voice. When it comes to issues like bullying, Morana said often one of the best ways to fight it is with peer pressure, positive peer pressure.

The ABS crew has held training sessions earlier this school year to teach each other how to respond to incidents of bullying. Not only were students shown how to recognize and report bullying, but participating in role playing scenarios have given them a kind of hands on experience in combating the issue.

Though the anti-bullying legislation has been largely well received, legitimate concerns over how schools could enforce such a broad set of rules have been raised and answered, sometimes, with little more than shrugged shoulders. In Red Bank, middle school Principal Maria Iozzi said the new procedures, which require more involvement at every step, are being undertaken on a case-by-case basis. But, she said she believes ABS has helped curbed bullying and limited the number of incidences of bullying in the school so far this year.

“There’s just a higher level of awareness all the way around,” she said.

Morana said she believes the student-led anti-bullying measure could be the first of its kind in the state.

In the fight to end bullying, however, Gray said students are also fighting the misconceptions that go along with it. As part of the students training, Gray said there’s an emphasis on reporting rather than tattling. Kids his age are afraid they’ll be seen as snitches, a term that’s softened over the years, especially in schools, to include any reporting of an incident to an authority figure.

In the end, he said, it’s just about doing what’s right, and that’s putting an end to bullying.