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Bullying in school: Play looks at the issues
By Kristin Sims-Kastelein
Staff Writer
Bullying is not just pushing and shoving — and it
does not just happen to kids. It’s a complex issue about who has power and control and how it is used in relationships.
Through her work with children at Crossroads, a youth-based non-profit theater group,
and her experience with her son, Saco resident Deb Landry has written a play and book with the same title: “Sticks, Stones and Stumped.” Both address the bullying issue in school and offer children a way to cope
and be supportive in an easily digestible story format.
The recent release of Sticks, Stones and Stumped is timed so that Landry can read her book in the school.
“I want to read my book to all the kids in the state of Maine,” she said.
Last July, Gov. John Baldacci signed a law requiring schools to enact more stringent bullying and harassment policies. State Rep. Carol Grose, D.-Woolwich, had brought the bill to the Legislature’s
attention because, she said, she saw that schools were defining bullying and harassment differently and had no guidance on how to design their own policies. The new law becomes effective Sept. 17 and requires
teachers and staff to become trained in bully prevention.
The law stipulates that teachers receive training at no cost to the schools or themselves.
Landry serves as part of the Community Safe School
Committee, “I was appointed to the group because I am the Executive Director of Crossroads,” she said. “But I was really the parent and lay person on the team.”
The group included Stan Davis, a
guidance counselor, professors from local colleges, paraprofessionals and Tom Harnett from the Maine Attorney General’s office. Landry says the tools developed from their meetings will help teachers learn the
nuances of bullying and harassment.
The process starts with students in kindergarten through second grade. At that level of development, the nature of bullying is a bit different.I don’t see it as big
problem,” said Deb Thompson, a teacher of first and second graders at FairfieldSchool in Saco, after seeing Landry’s bullying play. “It is usually isolated — but one bully impacts so many people.”
Younger students do bully and they have always done it, said Donna Duffy, a guidance counselor at FairfieldSchool.
“They are growing academically, socially and emotionally. It is a developmental stage,”
she said. “Children are egocentric; they don’t realize that what they are doing hurts other people. This begins to change as they realize they are a member of the group around second or third grade.”
Duffy said she talks to the students about interpersonal communication. But instead of using academic terms, she uses “monster talk,” “straight talk” and “mouse talk.”
She teaches them communication skills and explains how their actions affect others.
“It is a skill, just like writing or math,” she said. “The play is just one piece of this ongoing affective education.”
Landry’s play debuted Friday and will run in local schools until April. She
began rehearsing 20 of her 60 drama school students last September. The SacoMiddle School students rehearsed one hour per week, and the cast continually rotates. Landry said she tries to match students up with their
old teachers.
Friday’s cast consisted of six students: Brenda McCarthy, Cassie Henson, Kayla White, Haley Nason, Josephine Cooper and Katie Moskowitz. They chimed in unison, saying how nice it was to see
their old teachers.
Landry received funding for the play last year, when she was awarded a $7,500 grant from the Maine Community Foundation for a theater production. She said she wanted to save some money on
buying the rights to a play, so she wrote her own production and sewed the animal costumes herself.
The play and the book have the same story line and are dialogue-driven. Billy Bob Possum has recently moved
to Maine and is trying to make new friends at school.Landry said her play and book are designed to let the students think for themselves.
“I don’t try to change them. I try to give them information to make a better choice,” she said.
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