By Kerri Pepoy,Staff Writer

NORWAY – As the song says, it’s about R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

That’s the lesson SAD 17 high school students try to instill in elementary students with a team-based approach. The hope is that as they grow up, the lessons of mutual respect remain and the schools are places where students feel safe from bullying, said Jeanie Stone, school-based educator at the Rape Education and Crisis Hotline, or REACH.

Stone worked for four years at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School as an education technician and said in a recent interview that she became distressed when she witnessed students bullying and fighting each other and graffiti appearing on bathroom walls.

The school was under construction at the time and the disarray may have contributed to students’ aggressive attitudes, Stone said. “It was not a good place,” she said.

But whatever was causing the unrest among students, she decided to confront the problem by holding Respect Day at the school where speakers addressed students about respect for people and property.

It was so successful that several students wanted to continue the concept, Stone said. The annual Respect Day swelled into a Respect Week, which is still held each year at the high school. Then students banded together to create a Respect Team, with Stone serving as the adviser. The team members initially discussed ways to make SAD 17 schools safer places where students feel less threatened by bullying.

The team began visiting SAD 17 elementary schools because those young ages are where bullying behavior can root itself and carry forward into the teen years. “Their focus is raising respect awareness” among elementary students, Stone said. “It’s all been around creating a safe, respectful environment.”

According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, almost 30 percent of youth in the United States are estimated to be involved in bullying as either a bully, a target of bullying, or both, but when there is a schoolwide commitment to bullying, it can be reduced by up to 50 percent.

The organization also says that research shows that one effective approach to reduce the problem is raising awareness among students about bullying.

Stone said the Respect Team now has about 40 student members and additional volunteers are always welcome.

Initially, team members performed skits for grades five and six that contained themes about bullying and its destructiveness and why mutual respect is important.

However grant money helped the team purchase puppets that will be used in skits for younger grades including kindergarten to spread the anti-bullying message to those ages, Stone said. The grant was given to REACH last spring by the Maine Community Foundation. Stone said the grant was written in collaboration with University of Maine Cooperative Extension, which supports youth development programs, and the Norway Police Department.

Team members are currently rehearsing skits with the puppets so they can soon begin performing them in the elementary schools

Mark LaRoach, SAD 17 Assistant Superintendent, said students also are instructed about hate crimes by local educators and college professors who periodically visit the schools. They talk to students about what hate crimes are and discourage them from using racial and ethnic slurs.

“Fundamentally, learning can’t take place if students feel unsafe due to this unacceptable activity,” he said.