Jan. 17 — Students learn how to recognize, refuse, report

The Taproot Theatre Road Company from Seattle teaches the lessons of bully prevention through a performance at Karshner Elementary School

Chris Albert / of the Herald

Bullying and teasing does not have to be the norm.

“It’s not OK and it hurts,” Jeanie Schneider, principal at Karshner Elementary in Puyallup.

On Jan. 14, students at the school enjoyed a performance by the Taproot Theatre Road Company that taught the lessens of recognizing, refusing and reporting bullying.

The theater company has been preforming bully prevention plays for about 20 years, said Adrienne Littleton, one of the performers.

The group performs up to four shows a day at schools around the state.

“I think what drama does is it tells the story in an exciting, motivating way and it makes it stick for the kids,” said Principal Jeanie Schneider.

The acting troupe taught the lesson of bully prevention through the adventures of two friends’ participation in an American Idol style contest —Star Search.

“Sometimes they (the students) get really into it,” Littleton said.

During the performance many of the students responded to what they saw with gasps or laughter.

Once they began the contest, they encounter a bully, struggle with how to handle the situation and finally learn how to recognize, refuse and report a bully.

“I think it’s more getting them to recognize that it isn’t good and it isn’t normal,” Littleton said.

The first step in curbing bullying is recognition. For example, which is when someone hurts, threatens, frightens or leaves someone out on purpose.

Refusing is letting the bully know in a calm and non-violent manner that they are being a bully and it is not welcomed.

Reporting is telling a trusted adult what is going on.

The group made a point to share the differences between bullying and being a tattletale.

Telling on someone just to get them in trouble is tattletaling, the actors said. It’s really important to report an incident that is recognized as a problem, not just to get someone in trouble.

Finding support from friends can be a great way to stand up to a bully. Someone who witnesses bullying as a bystander can either be a positive or negative figure.

A negative bystander encourages the bullying, joins in the teasing or does nothing at all. A positive bystander non-violently stands up for the bullied, tells the bully what they are doing is wrong or helps the bullied tell a trusted adult.

Being a friend to a person who is bullied is being an ally.

At Karshner, they don’t want just any performers for assemblies, she said. Funds are limited, but thanks to the Karshner Parent Teacher Association, assemblies like the Taproot performance can happen.

“I’m really picky on my assemblies,” Schneider said. “It has really have a teaching purpose.”

The performance by Taproot really gives students, parents and faculty the tools and terminology to stop bullying and teasing.

Bullying usually isn’t violence, either, she said. More often than not it’s name calling, or making fun of someone’s hair or clothes. That kind of teasing makes students uncomfortable, which keeps them from being able to learn.

“Kids can’t learn if they are afraid to go to school,” Schneider said. “When we respect each one another we’re not going to pick and bully each other.”

When Schneider was the principal at Brouillet Elementary, the school had hosted a bully-prevention performance by the Seattle based theater group.

The experience engaged the students and really helped in students reporting bullying problems, she said.

The Karshner performance, so far, has had the same effect.

After the performance the actors asked students to tell them the three steps to stop bullying.

“That’s the fun part,” said Alicia Anderson, one of the performers.

Students eagerly raised their hands to answer.

As a last indicator of what the students thought of the performance, Schneider asked the students to give a thumbs up if they wanted them to return next year.

Nearly every thumb went up.

The lesson doesn’t stop with the performance, Schneider said. The staff will go over recognizing, refusing and reporting again so the concept sticks and hopefully bullying doesn’t have to be just part of growing up, she said.