LEWISTON — A renowned school safety expert will present “Weakfish — Bullying through the Eyes of a Child” from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Lewiston Middle School.

The program will feature Michael Dorn, an international advocate for victims worldwide. It is hosted by the Lewiston-Auburn Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative. The public is invited.

“We are fortunate to be able to bring one of the nation’s best known and most experienced school safety experts to Lewiston-Auburn,” Rosemary Kooy, director Safe Schools/Healthy Students, said. “This will open a community-wide dialogue about a pervasive societal issue and compel us to protect vulnerable children. We know that bullying can seriously affect the mental health, academic achievement, and physical health of children who are targeted.”

The presentation will use a case study of a real child who was chronically bullied in school to illustrate the dynamics of bullying and the power that students, school employees, parents and community members have to profoundly affect the lives of children and youth.

“Bullying is a problem everywhere. We all need to work together to combat this problem so that students feel safe no matter where they are,” said Nick Tifft, Youth Resource Coordinator for Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Maine Auburn-Lewiston Clubhouse. “Community forums like this help open the door for discussions between all of us who work with children.”

Dorn is executive director of Safe Havens International Inc., a global nonprofit school safety center. The author of 25 books on school safety, Dorn’s work has taken him to Central America, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Asia, South Africa and the Middle East. During his 25-year public safety career, Dorn served as a university police lieutenant, school district police chief and was appointed as the School Safety Specialist for the State of Georgia. He was also named as the Lead Program Manager of the Terrorism Division of the Georgia Office of Homeland Security.

A graduate of the FBI National Academy, Dorn also served as a university police lieutenant, school district police chief and was appointed as the School Safety Specialist for the State of Georgia.

He is regularly interviewed by national and international media organizations including NPR, 20/20, CNN, Good Morning America, ABC, NBC, CBS, Time Magazine, The New York Times, the London Times, Unavision and Tokyo Broadcasting.

“We want to be proactive in creating a culture of kindness by dealing with the issue of prejudice and helping parents learn skills to support their children in situations where bullying may occur,” said Leon Levesque, superintendent of Lewiston Public Schools.