Not surprisingly, a study shows, children who are identified as bullies at age 8 are three times as likely as other youths to break the law by age 30. Bill Head of Marietta, Ga., knows those fears too well. His son Brian endured bloody noses, broken eyeglasses, and cutting remarks about his weight for years. But then one day in 1994, Brian, then 15, walked into a classroom, waved a gun around, and shot himself to death. James Garabino, a Cornell University psychologist and expert on youth violence, says another student could easily have turned the gun on classmates.
Teachers do a poor job of handling bullies, according to a nationwide poll of students.
And perhaps for good reason. Del. But one school, coincidentally next door to Littleton, is trying a bully-intervention program that is serving as a model for 300 schools nationwide. At Highline Community School in Aurora, it is now against the rules for a student to watch a fellow classmate being bullied without intervening or seeking help. Largely as a result of the program, says counselor Paul VonEssen, misconduct reports at the school have been cut nearly in half.