RESPECT. Club Wants Students to Recognize, Stop Bullying

Teenagers—and adults—don’t always recognize bullying for what it is.

“Most people don’t know some of the minor bullying behaviors,” said Adam Hradisky, a junior at and a member of the RESPECT. club.

The students in RESPECT. want their peers and the adults in the community to be more aware of harmful behaviors and actions like bullying and dating violence. The students take a training course at the Akron Children’s Hospital and serve as ambassadors to their peers.

A lot of the verbal abuse that comes along with bullying can go unnoticed, Hradisky said, and students may not even realize they’re taking part. People don’t realize it’s so easy to get caught up in bullying, he said.

RESPECT. wants to change that.

Before winter break, the high school organization put together a bullying presentation for students. The presentation included examples of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, and the high school students were encouraged to interact with their younger peers, asking questions and giving feedback. The students also filmed short videos to serve as examples of negative behavior. The videos are embedded to the right.

The students in RESPECT. try to get the audience involved in their presentations, said senior Mike Comiono. The message means more coming from someone in his or her age group, rather than from a teacher or a parent.

“It add a lot more legitimacy to it,” Comiono said.

Part of the club’s job is to help students recognize that bullying isn’t just something that happens in movies or on the news—it happens in their daily lives. And the group’s presentations give examples of how to counteract those behaviors, rather than taking part or just standing by.

There are about 10 students in RESPECT. this year, and they all come from different groups of friends and take part in different activities, said junior Annie Nguyen.

“We all see different perspectives of bullying,” Nguyen said.

Getting together as part of the club gives them the chance to share what they see and get a fuller picture.

The students’ next project is focused on dating violence, just in time for Valentine’s Day and the school's winter formal. They’ll be preparing messages for the morning announcements and preparing prizes for students to help them remember the message.

It’s important for students to recognize bullying and dating violence behaviors, Nguyen said, so that they can stop accepting it. The group wants people to stop and think about what they’re saying to others beyond the presentations and activities.

And it’s important for adults in the community to be willing to talk about the issue, as well.

“They don’t think it happens in their community,” Comiono said.

Comiono and Hradisky said parents need to take complaints seriously, and be willing to get involved—and that goes for students who are being bullied and for those who are bullying others, they said.

“Every bully has his reason for bullying,” Hradisky said.