Fighting back: Movie highlights bullying in schools

LAKE COUNTY — Bullying may not sound like a serious problem on the surface, but when it hits home and the realizations set in, it can be devastating to a child’s adolescence.

About 30 people attended the screening of “Bullied: A Student, a School and a Case That Made History” on Wednesday, Feb. 29 at Mission Valley United Methodist Church near St. Ignatius. The documentary describes the true story of Jamie Nabozny, a student who was constantly bullied and harassed and at one point threatened with his life for being a homosexual.

Bullying starts at a very early age and can get dramatically worse as students approach high school. Students are be teased for a wide variety of reasons, including physical appearance, intelligence level and their interests, among others. According to a recent high school survey, around 8 percent of high school students, one of every 12 and a half, have attempted suicide, while one in five have thought about it and one in six have made plans for it.

Furthermore, on reservations, the number who attempt suicide jumps to 18 percent, an overwhelming number.

Nabozny, a physical and mental target for bullies on a daily basis, ran away twice and attempted suicide once during his six-year ordeal. Teachers and administrators chalked up the bullying to “boys being boys” and looked the other way. In high school, he was beaten so badly on one occasion, he required surgery and spent five days in a hospital.

Fortunately, Lake County teachers and administrators recognize the severity of the issue and have policies in place to address the problem.

“We at ASD take a very serious approach to bullying and harassment,” Arlee Superintendent John Miller said. “We have zero tolerance for it and take immediate action if it occurs. Students are in-serviced at the beginning of each year about the serious nature of it and if they engage in bullying we will hold them accountable for their actions.”

The act of bullying has shifted in recent years with the development and increase in social media use. Bullies can better stay off the radar of faculty while continuing to pick on their targets, but teachers are wise to this transformation.

“We know that there is a small amount of bullying and harassment that does occur and mainly through the use of electronic devices,” Miller said.

The problem is alarming in the St. Ignatius school district, where, according to a 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 41.1 percent of middle school students and 16.7 percent of high school students claim to have been bullied on school grounds. That problem is enhanced by the use of electronic means, where 21.4 percent of middle school students and 16.7 percent of high schoolers report bullying by those means.

St. Ignatius Superintendent Bob Lewandowski is trying to make strides to curb all bullying in the district.

“At Mission, we will soon provide professional development opportunities to help staff identify both direct and indirect bullying,” Lewandowski said. “We will put bullying on our school and staff’s radar to provide the safety, support and belonging every child deserves.”

Currently, the district uses online resources, books and several other resources to address bullying and is constantly searching for the most effective ways to handle the issue.

“As the educational institution in St. Ignatius, we want to do everything possible to stop bullying and help our students overcome these realities of childhood and adolescence,” Lewandowski added.

As Lewandowski said, bullying is an unfortunate reality that some students face and as the documentary outlined, it’s unavoidable for many. Students’ options are drastically limited, where dropping out isn’t a long-term solution and running away leads to more problems. Nabozny’s mother attempted to make other arrangements, including alternative education, but eventually could not afford it, forcing her son back into the public school system, where the harassment picked up right where it left off.

At the conclusion of the documentary, the audience gathered to talk about what they learned, what they know about the problem and what can be done to stop it. One of the keys they focused on is communication between parents, teachers and the community, to address the problem from all angles.

“We just know from what we hear that it’s not a problem that’s done,” Cheryl Wolfe, with the Flathead Reservation Human Rights Coalition, said. “From the stories we hear, there is bullying going on all the time. We’re not done yet. We’re far from done.

“School is a place where kids should be safe,” she added.

Students need to be afforded the opportunity to go to a place where they can learn about math and English and not how to deal with and avoid bullies. With parents, teachers and faculty learning more and more about the effects of bullying and how to combat it, they’re fighting back.