Fighting bullying with self-expression
For months, third-grader Nina Osso had been doing her best not to let a bully bring her down.
Nina tried to ignore the teasing on the playground, the shoving while waiting in line for recess, and even the hair-pulling, toe-stepping and ankle-kicking behind the teacher's back. But one day she worried she wouldn't recover from one rude remark too many: "Hey, Nina!" the bully taunted. "I don't like your outfit."
"I tried not to show it, but it really made me feel pretty small and weak. And I kind of felt like I was helpless for a second," said Nina, now in fifth grade at Harrington Park School. "But then my friend turned around and said, 'Be quiet.' That made me feel really happy."
From that moment on, Nina decided she'd be the one to speak up when she saw someone else getting bullied. Two years later, Nina is one of 20 students deemed 2013 winners in the Bergen County prosecutor's third annual "Don't Stand By for Bullying" contest.
Open to all students in Grades K-12 in Bergen County, the contest challenged students to submit projects that explained how to avoid being a bystander, or a person who witnesses bullying but does and says nothing about it. The elementary school entrants submitted posters, middle-schoolers created PowerPoint presentations, and high-schoolers produced short videos.
Pascack Hills High School junior Jake Fischer, 16, won first place in the 11th grade category for his video, which depicted a teenage boy who couldn't get to sleep at night as dozens of cruel taunts echoed in his head.
"I wanted to make a video that truly reflected what bullying people actually is – not shoving people into lockers," Jake said. "I just tried to capture the little things, like mean little side comments. They build up and people take note of that and it really lowers one's self-esteem."
The contest represents a small component to the statewide push to combat bullying. Schools throughout North Jersey have been ramping up efforts to prevent students from hurting each other through bullying and formally tracking incidents under the state's Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act signed into law in 2011.
At Pascack Hills, for instance, the school hosts new events promoting tolerance and safety, including poetry slams and bracelet campaigns; students post positive messages about their peers on a "Wall of Respect"; and ninth-graders now do a unit in health class based on the anti-bullying film "Sticks and Stones," said Gale Mangold, student assistance coordinator and anti-bullying specialist at Pascack Hills.
"There isn't just one single program that works, and certainly our contest isn't the only anti-bullying effort out there, but we find it positive that we're reaching out to students in many different ways to talk about these issues," Bergen County Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Maureen Parenta said. "It's great to see the younger generations' outlook – that it's not just 'kids being kids,' that this is not behavior they're going to accept."
The state's updated anti-bullying policy, which logged 12,000 instances of bullying in its first year, has drawn both praise for its good intentions and criticism for its vague language and onerous requirements on schools.
Mangold said that bullying incidents at Pascack Hills have dropped by about half since last year, from 27 reported incidents in 2011-12 to 13 reported incidents in 2012-13. Of those reported incidents, only about half turn out to actually involve bullying, she said.
"I think that the law has created a climate of awareness and seriousness for kids that might have made derogatory comments before," Mangold said. "It's changing the climate of what's permissible."
Roughly 60 schools participated in the County Prosecutor's contest, with the winners determined through online voting. Nina's PowerPoint presentation nabbed 6,000 votes – by far the highest vote-getter in the contest, Parenta said. She used the slides to share her personal story, and offer some simple advice on how to handle a bully without becoming one yourself.
"It can be really hard trying to stick up for somebody," Nina said. "But I think a lot of people now are starting to open up their eyes to bullying — a lot more than it was last year and the year before. A lot of teachers have been bringing it up, a lot of kids have been bringing it up. There's a lot more conversations about it. And I remember our assistant principal saying our goal was 'zero tolerance' for bullying. I think it can happen."
View the winning entries at BCPO.net.