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NAPD Teaches Seventh-Graders About Cyberbullying
By Jack Guerino, iBerkshires Staff
04:29PM / Monday, September 21, 2015
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Sullivan Elementary School seventh-graders listen to anti-bullying lessons from the North Adams Police Department.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Officers from the North Adams Police Department presented the dangers of cyberbullying - and bullying in general - to Sullivan Elementary School seventh-graders.

Teacher James Holmes said the bullying unit falls into the "Second Step" curriculum, a research-based classroom social skills program for children aimed at reducing impulsive and aggressive behavior while increasing social competence.

“I just think it is good for kids to see that there are two sides and how inappropriate it is to hurt other people’s feelings and bully people,” Holmes said. "They don’t always think about it; they just do it. And being nasty to people can be infectious. It’s like sharks around chum.”

North Adams police officers Francis Maruco and David Lemieux presented students with some of the worst cases of cyberbullying as well as the dangers of online predators.

Maruco said that with the advent of smartphones and social media, bullying is constant, sometimes faceless and often invisible.

“School should be like a safe haven for student,” Maruco said. "If they are being cyberbullied, it is a constant thing. It’s not always just here; they are living with it constantly.”

Maruco added that students should learn to see the police as a resource who can help them if they are bullied and that kids should stand up for other students being bullied.

“They don’t think we can doing anything about it, but we can,” he said. “We can we can get the IP address and we can get the telephone number. We have the ability in the station.”

Lemieux said he hopes the more exposure the students have to police the more confident they will feel asking for help.

“I think just getting in here and talking to the kids is good because we don’t want kids to be afraid of us,” Lemieux said. “We want the kids to come to us and be able to tell us what is wrong.”

School Adjustment counselor Julie Richard-O’Donovan said students are more aware now of bullying and the danger of the internet than they were in the past because of programs like this. She added that research shows that students are more aware if these programs are implemented at younger ages.

“I think the benefits of this program are making kids aware that bullying isn’t just something that a kid has to go through and it is not OK,” Richard-O’Donovan said. “It makes kids who it is happening to more aware of what they can do about it.”

Holmes agreed that this is an important part of the "Second Step" program. He said he tries to teach kids to be more aware of empathy. He said at the end of the program students will be involved in community service projects such as making Halloween cards that will be handed out to residents of the Ashland Street high-rise apartment building.  

“I am trying to teach empathy to them and instill a want to do positive things for the community,” Holmes said. “They start thinking about doing good things for the community and hopefully it can be infectious. That is the goal.”

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