BAILEYVILLE – Students at Woodland High School on Wednesday learned about how words can hurt.

Assistant Attorney General Thomas Harnett was in the community to talk with junior high and high school students about how their actions -including their words – can do damage when directed at a minority group.

He then showed them a film, and they heard the words of a woman from Somalia who had been subjected to racial remarks, including being called a monkey. Other incidents also were described, including one case in which a young man had a knife held to his throat because his fellow students decided he was gay. The incidents all happened in Maine.

But it was school Principal Patti Metta who set the tone for the civil rights assembly.

Addressing more than 100 students, she asked those who believed they were leaders to stand up. The majority stood.

“OK, so we have a lot of leaders in this building, a lot of people who think they are student leaders,” she said. “I am going to ask you to do something for me as student leaders, to do something for your community and your school. We are going to ask all of you, teachers and students, to stand up to those that are being belittled, teased and tormented.”

Metta, who has been the principal for four years, asked them to adopt zero tolerance for those who treat others with disrespect.

“We have a great school, we have a great student body, we have a great faculty, and we have a great community, and we know that each and every one of you can be a leader if you choose to be,” she said.

The principal said afterward that the assistant attorney general’s presence in Baileyville was unrelated to the alleged attack on two Passamaquoddy youths. She said the meeting with the students had been scheduled for some time.

Affirmative Action Officer Henry Noonan said the session Wednesday was part of a series of awareness events for students.

The goal, he said, was “to upgrade the students and staff about hate crimes. Also, we are doing things about sexual orientation, bullying and harassment,” he said. “We have things in the works that are going to make [the students] more aware to not only what is acceptable and what is not, [but also] the reaction on the victims and what they are feeling.”

A tape of the morning session with Harnett, Noonan said, would be played over the town’s community access channel, “so the parents can see this,” he said.

Harnett said after the forum that last year he held 135 such talks for schools and community groups.

“It is as important to talk to the family of students as it is to talk to students because these are all learned behaviors, and a lot of times adults dismiss these behaviors as kids being kids,” he said. “I think we can do better, and we need to educate parents on the consequences of what they think their kids are just allowed to do.”