Immaculate Conception Students get an Education on Bullying

On the last day of Catholic School Week on Friday, seventh and eighth grade students at Immaculate Conception Catholic Regional School school filled their performing arts center and learned different strategies on how to avoid being bullied.

The Kaleidoscope Children's Theatre performed "B.U.L.L.Y," which stands for Better Understanding by Listening and Learning about You."

Education Coordinator Jamie Dellorco said the play was co-written by Kaleidoscope's Executive Director David G. Payton and Marianne Douglas—a former teacher at Mount Hope High school in Bristol.

Payton also wrote all the original music which includes; "Why Must I go to School," "Being aBull is Fun," "Like Me" and "Under the Sea."

"There are three different age groups of the production," Delloroco said. "Level two is for the middle school age and it's more intense with a cast of seven."

Actor James Lambert portrayed Jake who was the male leader of the "B.U.L.L.Y." gang. Dan Walsh, also a bully, played Hank as well as a victim. For the girls side, Alexandria Birmingham transformed herself into Jennifer—the leader of the mean girls. Her sidekick was Krista Louise, who played Lori.

The first scene began with the play "Grease" coming to their school and the students auditioning for different roles. The drama teacher and mother, played by Jamie Dellorco, was confronted with her daughter Winnie and a male victim, Gary, getting involved in a hostile confrontations where they were bullied. 

"One way to diffuse a bully situation is to tell someone," said Dellorco, who noted that words can hurt deep down inside and last a long time.

The cast did an exercice demonstrating how words last on the Internet using a tube of toothpaste. One volunteer student squeezed toothpaste out of the tube and another tried to put it back in. It quickly became clear that it was impossible to put the toothpaste back in. Words behave the same way—once you put them out there, you can't take them back. 

The cast told the students to do a breathing exercise when someone looks at you funny by counting to five, breathing in, counting to five again and breathing out. 

One student asked if any of the actors had been bullied All the actors said at one time or another they all have been bullied.

Dellorco explained how she was bullied mercilessly and how she had to transfer to a private school because the public middle school students used to push her into the lockers, push her down the stairs and tell her she was a waste of space. She told the students that people who bully really don't like themselves and that is why they are bulling.

For more information visit www.kaleidoscopechildrenstheatre.com  and www.teenstrategies.com.