Schoolkids learn how to prevent bullying

DRY RIDGE, Ky. - What can schoolkids do to prevent bullying? Make new friends out of the kids who are victims – and the ones who might become bullies.

That was the message 500 fourth- and fifth-graders heard from police officer Scott Harvey on Friday,  9 On Your Side's Tony Mirones reported. The gym at Dry Ridge Elementary was packed with students from four schools, and they paid close attention for an hour as Harvey interacted with them and challenged them to do their part to fight the problem.

“When we look at the definition of bullying – hurting people with our words, hurting with our actions over and over again – we’re all guilty of that at one time or another,” Harvey said.

Harvey, a sergeant for the Nicholasville Police Department, speaks to schools and groups around the state. When he was working with kids in the D. A. R. E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, he learned that bullying in and out of schools is a 24-hour-a-day problem - not like when he was a kid.

"When I was in school, if I was being bullied, I could take a day or two off. The weekend, the evening was down time. I was unplugged from my friend network," said the 15-year crime fighter. "Today, through social media and all of their technology, they are never unplugged.

"We have to focus on our victims. Our bullies, we have to change their behavior," said Harvey.

They way to do that is to reach out to them, Harvey told the kids.

He said everyone in a school knows which kids are targeted with verbal, physical or written abuse. Harvey encouraged students to befriend those kids and include them in their activities, lunchroom conversations and recess time. He said kids who are not alone are less likely to be picked on -  and less likely to become bullies themselves.

And kids who don’t feel alone typically make better decisions, Harvey said.

Harvey said 66 percent of school shooters who survived their attacks cited bullying as their No. 1 problem.

"When I talk to teachers, I tell them there is such a thing as a chronic victim," he said. "And those are the kids who need our attention, because those are the kids who are a safety threat."

After the presentation, Harvey told 9 On Your Side that he has visited schools after a child has committed suicide.  That’s how some kids succumb to the pressure of being bullied, he said.

"It's so much harder to come into a school after a tragedy than it is to come in before hand and say, 'Let's do better.' Once a kid is gone, no presentation is going to bring them back."

Read more about Harvey and his message at http://www.speakingofharvey.com/