Local program works with mentors to help handle school bullying

Bullying at school drove a Massachusetts teenager to commit suicide earlier this year. 15-year-old Phoebe Prince hung herself after continuous bullying from other students at the school she attended. National attention came to her case when six students were arrested earlier this month and all charged with felony crimes relating to her death.

Statistics from the website www.how-to-stop-bullying.com indicate that one in four students is bullied in school. They also say half of all bullying goes unreported. 2007 data from their statistical information showed that California ranked 1st of all states where bullying is the worse.

In San Luis Obispo, the Big Brothers, Big Sisters organization has a mentoring program to help younger students handle bullying early on. Program director Sarah Rudd-Lawlor noted that "during our after school mentoring program where we have high schoolers come to the elementary school campus to mentor children for one hour a week, we're finding that a lot of the kids there are really learning about peaceful conflict resolution and how to stand up for themselves against bullies."

Case studies of the shooting at Columbine High School and other schools have suggested that bullying was a factor in many of the incidents. Big Brothers, Big Sisters hopes it's able to help students learn to handle bullying before it leads to something tragic. Lawlor said,"It really is helping to help curb bullying with the youth that we're particularly working with and that's thanks to the wonderful mentors who are there to give them that one on one attention."

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