Bullying heads teen summit

By Dean Shipley

Staff Writer

Bullying has been around a long time.

 High school students from three schools watched with apparent interest on Friday a video created by Scott Hannah and Tyler Gregory of Clark County. Their video was shown as part of a teen summit held at the Procter Center at which students from London, Madison-Plains and West Jefferson attended. The focus was bringing down bullying in their schools.

The person being bullied doesn’t like it. Those witnessing it often feel powerless to halt it, or worse join in. Now as teens and younger become empowered by cell phones and the like, cyber bullying takes place outside the confines of the school yard. It can invade a child’s safest place: his/her room, said Hannah Johnson of West Jefferson High School.

It’s an “underground” form of abuse said Kelsie Schneider, also of West Jefferson High School.

She and many other students from her school, London and Madison-Plains High Schools focused on bullying at a teen summit on Friday entitled “The Power of Me.” Held at the Procter Center on state Route 38, the all-day event brought students together to hear from representatives of law enforcement, the judiciary, education, corrections, social services and mental health about the impact of bullying on the various aspects of society.

Bullying lurks underground because the victim, either from shame or shortfall of courage, will suppress and internalize the bullying incident(s). Some victims suppress it to the point of suicide, now called bullycide.

It was an act of the former which inspired Tyler Gregory and Scott Hannah of Clark County to act. A friend of Hannah’s had been bullied, which further strengthened his resolve to produce a video which would address bullying. He and Gregory entered the NO BULL challenge to “take a stand against bullying.”

By their own admission, the process was fairly simple and low budget. But it had power in its simplicity. Of the 269 entries in the contest, theirs made the top 15. It was recognized as a “shining star” entry because it was made to be shown to their peers.

“We were using the video to inspire other people,” Gregory said.

Once they had shown it to students at Southeastern High School, they received requests to show it at another school. And another and another.

They have literally traveled across the country showing the video to groups of teens. The exposure has thrust them onto the national stage, where they have appeared on the Today show and the Federal Partners on Bullying Summit in Washington, D.C. They have become No BULL Guys, and are National Spokesmen for the Great American NO BULL CHALLENGE and will be helping to plan next year’s challenge and red carpet event.

“This is a call to action,” Gregory said.

Despite being criticized at times for the fervor of their message, they have gained a huge measure of maturity and “we don’t let it bother us. You have to shrug it off and learn how to blow it off.”

Hannah said after the video was shown at Southeastern, the person who perpetrated the bullying against his friend came forward and felt guilty to the point it made her sick to her stomach.

Kelly Portman, coordinator of the event, said each school will receive a mini-grant of $500 to use as seed money to start their own video production.

As she observed students in the morning sessions, she was impressed by their level of engagement.

“None of them had their cell phones out,” she said.

Other speakers at the summit included: Common Pleas Judge Robert Nichols, London Schools Superintendent Tom Ben, Ohio Highway Patrol Trooper Shane Meddock, MaCI Warden Rod Johnson, Amber Conley of social services, Kent Youngman of the mental health board of Clark, Greene and Madison Counties, Peg Johnson of the Crisis Response Team.