FARMINGTON – Nearly every eighth-grader raised their hand Tuesday when asked if they heard hurtful words spoken at school because of race, religion or sexual orientation.

The Mt. Blue Middle School students were gathered for an assembly on harassment and civil rights led by lawyer Thomas Harnett from the Maine Attorney General’s Office.

Harnett, who works on civil rights education and enforcement, had just finished an assembly with the seventh-graders.

The power of words go well beyond what we think, he said. They can inflict hurt or encourage, he said, as he told stories of youths in Maine schools traumatized by repeated taunting and threats or acts of violence.

When students are not feeling safe, valued, welcomed and respected, they are not getting an education, he said. They are worrying about how they’re going to be treated. Hundreds of kids in school are miserable from the treatment of other kids and carry it into their futures.

The assemblies, organized by school counselor Jan Welch and school nurse Karen Marceau were an extension of the school’s civil rights team.

“We have a great school and great people. We want to make it better,” Welch said. “We want it to be a safe place.”

The school halls are lined with words and posters reminding students of the importance of words. This is one project completed by the team consisting of 11 students, she said. They also prepare a celebration of Martin Luther King Day and involve the school community in “no name calling days,” she said.

Along with true stories he told of students harassed to the point of suicide, Harnett’s program included a video featuring young Mainers who play the parts of Maine students who were victimized. Hearing from peers about real cases that took place in Maine schools has a profound impact on students and staff, he wrote in an assembly format.

“I’ve seen this video a thousand times but every time I have to remind myself that these things happened to somebody’s brother or sister, daughter, son, loved one,” he told the students.

Whether it was the story of a Somali student at Portland High School who was spit upon or a student in Somerset County who was tormented for being a Jew, it’s in big towns and little ones, these cases happen all around Maine, Harnett said.

Harnett explained about Maine’s civil rights law and the work he does dealing with the consequences as he implored the students to think about what they want their community/life to be like and what they could do to get “these words out of your school.”

He encouraged the students to listen to the words of Martin Luther King, someone he said he looks up to. King’s words in his “I have a dream,” speech are as relevant now as they were 45 years ago, he said.

“As King said, ‘It’s not the words of my enemies but the silence of my friends,'” Harnett said, explaining if you’re not part the solution, you’re part of the problem.