Presentation Teaches Fifth Graders About the Burdens of Bullying

guidance counselor Christopher Nutland compared the stress caused by bullying to the weight of a backpack at a talk for fifth graders at on Wednesday.

"Every single person here carries an invisible backpack," said Nutland, the anti-bullying coordinator for East Brook.

Nutland told the students that he was bullied when he went to school because of his dyslexia. The graduate said he hated coming to school on certain days because he was picked on.

To demonstrate what a burden bullying can be, he filled a backpack with a flute, notebooks and other items that represented the stresses and worries a student might have normally. But he also added 40 pounds of weights.

"Some people have experiences where that backpack is so heavy," Nutland said. "The burdens that they have are so heavy that their thoughts are, 'Why do I even bother going to school? I'm going to get picked on.'"

Nutland said the nature of bullying was different from when he was a student. Because of the advent of the Internet and text messaging, harassment doesn't stop when students go home. Nutland told the fifth graders to think before hitting "send."

This is the second year Nutland gave his "backpack of burden" talk to fifth graders in Paramus. He developed the idea when he was a history teacher at Fieldstone Middle School in Montvale.

West Brook principal Carla Alvarez said Nutland's talk was a good way of addressing bullying with the fifth graders.

"Students see that when positive behaviors and respect are shared, the backpack is light and we feel good, while when words and actions are hurtful it weighs us down," she said in an email.

Nutland will speak to fifth graders at East Brook Middle School on Nov. 4. Paramus students in grades six through eight will hear a different presentation on bullying from John Halligan, whose son Ryan killed himself because of bullying online and in real life.