Editor’s Note: Student Union’s weekly columns are a joint effort of the region’s high schools, the Bangor Daily News and Acadia Hospital. This week’s column was written by Stearns High School students. Their advisers are Sue Buzzell and Eric Steeves.

Did you know that nationwide school studies indicate an estimated 86 percent of students is bullied each day?

This statistic, from the Martial Arts for Peace Web site, at www.martialartsforpeace.com, is real, and there are new victims every day of this form of harassment. Consequences of this behavior are serious, sometimes leading to suicide, or even homicide.

Children who are bullied lose their self-confidence, but the irony of the situation is that the people doing the bullying don’t have self-confidence, either.

How far does bullying have to go? Why aren’t teachers stopping harassment in their schools? Eight percent of students miss one class a month in fear of bullies. That is a large number of children missing classes in terms of schools nationwide, and teachers and peers aren’t doing enough about it.

On Thursday, Dec. 4, and Friday, Dec. 5, Stearns High School Civil Rights Team members had an opportunity to visit freshman English classes. Our objectives were to make the students aware of what the CRT is and does, the issues occurring in our school, and what we plan to do about them.

We started our presentation with an orange exercise, where each student was given an orange and asked to compare it with others’ oranges.

We asked them to find characteristics that were unique to their orange, so that when we collected them and put them into a pile, they’d be able to find their own. It was a lot more difficult than they thought it would be.

Then we asked them to think about what it would be like if people were more like oranges. There wouldn’t be a whole lot of differences, would there? Then we discussed what the world would be like if people were all the same. We pretty much all got the same answer: BORING! And that’s why individuality is so important.

Once we got them thinking about individuality, we brought up a serious topic – labeling.

Labeling has become a much bigger issue in high schools and even middle schools everywhere. We asked the students to think about what it is that makes people different from one another.

Some answers were: physical appearance, the crowd a person hangs out with (their friends), what a person is involved in (band, sports, math team, etc.), where they are from, ethnicity, religion and many more. We passed around note cards with labels on them, mostly derogatory or slang words used to make fun of people.

We asked them to keep any cards with names they felt comfortable being called, or felt comfortable calling others. When they were done, we went around the room and volunteers shared with us why they felt the way they did, and others offered their opinions.

It was a good activity because it let classmates know their levels of tolerance to name-calling and put-downs.

To close our presentation, we shared with them some of our experiences. A few members of the Stearns CRT and Peer Counselors recently attended a training experience called “Challenge Day,” which we would like to bring to our school.

We are glad we had such an opportunity. Not only do we feel we’ve made a difference, but we know some of the students we talked to are beginning to make a difference, too.

A couple of days ago, we received letters from some of the classes, thanking us for addressing the issues. They knew those issues were a problem, but didn’t now how to resolve them.

A couple of students said, “Ever since you came in, I’ve tried to watch what I say. I also watch what others say, and try to tell them if it was mean or uncalled for…, ” and, “Your presentation made me realize that when you make fun of someone, even if you mean it as a joke, it could still really hurt them …”

The students were glad to know that we are going to step in and stop any harassment we notice. It gives them the courage to do so themselves, and think twice before they say something they’ll regret. Thanks for your cooperation, Class of 2007.

Parents, teachers, and peers can stop most bullying with a little awareness. Take the opportunity to talk to children about this behavior. Take control of a bad situation, and stop it.

Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. How would you feel? How does it feel, knowing you could possibly destroy, or save a life? You are the change, and it takes only a single person to make a difference.

Schools participating in Student Union include Hampden Academy, Brewer High School, John Bapst Memorial High School, Old Town High School, Mount Desert Island Regional High School, Stearns High School in Millinocket, Nokomis Regional High School, Hermon High School, and Schenck High School in East Millinocket.