One message in school campaign: 'Be a buddy, not a bully'

They read like the self-help section at the local bookstore.

Learning For Life. Character Counts. Have You Filled Your Bucket Today? Words Are Not For Hurting.

But these are actually programs now offered at Hillsborough County Public Schools as part of a statewide effort to teach students and staff about violence prevention and, in particular, the consequences of bullying.

The issue has become a national priority as violence among school-aged children continues to escalate. Just last week, a 15-year-old South Florida teen was set on fire by classmates near his home after a squabble over a video game.

Closer to home, four teens from Walker Middle School in Odessa face criminal charges in the rape of another student in the boys' locker room. The incident sparked a countywide conversation about attitudes concerning bullying.

There was a time when parents and school administrators advised children to ignore bullies.

"Now, you cannot," said Pierce Middle School Principal Henry Lefler. "You cannot say 'Oh, just ignore it,' because it's not going to go away."

That was a message Lefler brought back from a training seminar for school officials in Orlando this summer. Since then, Hillsborough and other school districts across the state have been busy implementing new anti-bullying policies.

The move follows a state law that went into effect in January requiring public schools to more carefully document bullying among students and to make it easier for victims to report the abuse.

The law, called the Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up For All Students Act, is named for a 15-year-old Coral Springs boy who committed suicide in 2005 after enduring nearly three years of bullying by a classmate.

Every school district in Florida has had to create an anti-bullying policy that defines the abuse and outlines consequences for violators, including suspension, expulsion or even arrest. School officials also had to develop an online system for anonymous reporting.

Since the system began in August, the district has received 104 reports. Most are unfounded, officials say, and many come from parents.

Schools also must develop ongoing anti-bully programs by the end of the school year. In Hillsborough, a committee devoted to violence prevention recently surveyed more than 200 locations including charter schools to determine which ones had programs.

Of the 145 that responded, most schools reported programs developed in-house by principals, guidance counselors and other staff. Principals and the district's area directors provide the oversight.

Many already had anti-bullying messages in existing programs for building student character, said Judith Rainone, the district's director of administrators, who is a member of the violence prevention committee.

But with 56 programs listed on the survey, no one from the district has been able to research each one, said school board member Candy Olson said. So no one really knows what works and what doesn't, she said.

"I don't think we should say, 'Here's the magic answer, now do it,' " Olson said. "There's no one solution. If you have something that's working, fine, but if it's not working, if it's stale ... the district should be able to offer up five really good ones to try. We need some consistency."

Some programs developed elsewhere are being adapted in Hillsborough schools. Among the most popular is Olweus, a bullying prevention program from the Minnesota-based Hazelden drug and alcohol treatment foundation and South Carolina's Clemson University.

Olweus uses school discussions, questionnaires, rules development and meetings that bring together parents, students and teachers. The program touts 35 years of research showing on average a 20 to 70 percent reduction in bullying schoolwide.

The district allocated $20,000 to train five schools this year with Olweus - Adams and Walker middle schools, Hammond Elementary and Sickles and Chamberlain high schools. Forest Hills Elementary has already received the training and Oak Park Elementary paid for its Olweus training through a grant, Rainone said.

One school, Baycrest Elementary, uses an anti-bullying campaign sponsored by Chick Fil-A. The national restaurant chain has teamed with motivational speaker Jay Banks of Tennessee who relies on humor to teach kids that bullying hurts.

Bullied as a child, Banks noticed his stepson encountering similar treatment. Banks developed the STAMP Out Bullying program, an acronym for Stay away from bullies, Tell someone, Avoid bad situations, Make friends and Project confidence.

He uses comedy sketches along with incentives from Chick Fil-A to make the lessons fun. Banks' Web site says the program has resulted in a 50 percent reduction in bullying incidents based on research he did in 2007.

At Nelson Elementary, the principal, assistant principals, guidance counselors and teachers put together an anti-bullying campaign with a theme: Be a Buddy, Not a Bully.

Music teacher Matthew Maines took the theme and wrote a 40-minute musical for his fourth-grade classes, drawing upon his personal experiences. His hope is to inspire confidence in students while teaching them "to treat others with kindness."

Lefler tapped his school's intervention specialist, Regina Hollinger, to create the Ambassadors program at Pierce. Hollinger spoke to students in the first few weeks of school, defining bullying and offering suggestions on what they could do if they or a classmate were being bullied.

The most important advice: "If the person being bullied tells you not to tell, please, please, please tell," Hollinger told them. "You are helping that person."

In a few short months, there are signs the message is getting through.

"If somebody messes with you, leave it alone," said Dagoberto Cuevas, a Pierce eighth-grader who shared what he learned from the program. "If you have a problem, go to the teacher. Don't get scared. Do it sooner than later."

"So no one gets hurt or injured," added 13-year-old classmate Sara Machado. By telling, she said, "you can walk away knowing you did the right thing."

The message is good, said parent Christy Ciacco, but having a policy in place to educate and protect children will only work if it's enforced.

Ciacco said she complained to school officials last year after her daughter, who has special needs, was hit by a classmate and a substitute teacher failed to report it.

"The school board has talked the talk with the policies," she said. "It's time for them to walk the walk with enforcement for both students and staff."

Every school employee is required to report bullying, according to the district's anti-bullying and harassment policy. However, neither the policy nor Florida's law spells out consequences for failing to do so.

"All my teachers know to report it," said Lefler. "Bullying will be dealt with swiftly and with certainty."