ShawneeDispatch.com

Alyssa George still remembers being bullied in eighth grade.

“There was a top 10 hate list going around about me,” she said.

George now draws on her experience to help others as she travels the state at Miss Kansas 2007 and talks to students about her platform, “Bullying: The Bystander Effect.”

George visited Horizon Elementary School on Friday to talk about bullying and “The Power of a Witness.”

“Does bullying happen here?” she asked students.

“No,” they said.

But George didn’t believe them. So she had the students close their eyes and put their heads down.

“Raise your hand if you’ve ever been called a name,” she said.

Hundreds of hands shot into the air.

“As you can see, bullying does happen because almost every one of you has your hand raised,” George said.

She then informed students of the three types of bullying — physical, verbal and social.

Physical bullying means using one’s body to hurt someone. With verbal bullying, it can be calling someone names. Social bullying is talking behind someone’s back or excluding someone.

“Which of these three forms of bullying happens most in this school?” George asked the students.

They raised their hands most for verbal and social bullying.

George said the most important person in a bullying situation was not the bully or the target but the witness.

“As a witness you can go up and talk to the target,” she said. “It’s as easy as going up to them and saying ‘Hey, I saw what happened and I’m sorry.’”

George said bullying happens every 7 minutes and usually lasts 30 seconds. She had the students put their heads down for 30 seconds to realize how long 30 seconds can be.

“Imagine someone is calling you names and picking on you,” she said. “That is a very long time to be picked on.”

Witnesses to bullying also have a way to address a problem when it’s happening, George said.

“There are two words you can say: Stop it,” she said. “You can say those two words and the problem might come to an end.”

Next George showed students what to do if they became the target of a bully.

“Dante, I don’t like your hair today. It’s ugly,” George said to second-grader Dante Peterson.

“OK,” Dante said.

“And you’re not invited to my party tonight after school,” George said.

“OK,” Dante said.

Dante was giving the example of being a “broken record.” George said using this approach can make a bully bored and cause him to go away.

Another method George taught students was “agree.”

“Madison I think your hair is really ugly today,” George said to fifth-grader Madison Montee.

“Me too,” Madison said.

George said bullies want their targets to get angry and disagree, so agreeing with them would be a surprise.

“Just say no” is another way to make a bully go away, George said.

“It’s about standing up for yourself,” she said. “It’s about saying ‘no’ and then saying ‘stop.’”

Finally, George told students they also could try to use humor.

“Dylan I saw you in math class today and you were so dumb,” she said to fifth-grader Dylan Fox.

“No, thanks. I already had banana.” Dylan said to George.

George said this would frustrate a bully because the target isn’t responding.

“It makes no sense does it,” she said. “He changed the subject by using one sentence and walking away.”

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