Orlando launches anti-bullying campaign

It’s not a usual function of city government, but Orlando launched a campaign Thursday that aims to teach both kids and adults how to stop bullying.

The “Stand Up Orlando” campaign attempts to combat bullying on several fronts, starting with an antibullying curriculum in the nine public middle schools within Orlando city limits.

About one in four students in the United States claims to have been bullied, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Hu- man Services, and most of them are in middle school.

“The numbers speak for themselves. Just about every child either experiences bullying or has seen bullying,” Mayor Buddy Dyer said. “So we want to give them the experience and the understanding of how to react to bullying.”

The city-led initiative follows recent high-profile incidents tied to bullying.

Last month, 14-year-old Lamar “Shaq” Hawkins used a gun to kill himself in a bathroom at Greenwood Lakes Middle School in Seminole County. Last year, Rebecca Ann Sedwick, 12, jumped to her death from an abandoned cement silo in Polk County. Both mothers said their child had been relentlessly bullied.

Orlando middle schools will include the Upstanders program, five sessions of anti-bullying training provided by the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida. It teaches children to speak up and intervene when they see one of their peers being bullied or intimidated.

“When the kids around them say, ‘Hey, this is not w h a t we wa n t in our school,’ that’s how we end this problem. That’s what the Upstanders program does,” said Dr. Neil Boris, a child psychiatrist with Nemours Children’s Hospital, which is helping with training and funding.

The city has allocated $50,000 for the program, and more than a dozen corporations are contributing another $103,000. Those include Florida Hospital for Children, Universal Orlando, Wayne Densch Chari t a b l e Tr u s t , Tav i s t o c k Foundation, Westgate Res o r t s Fo u n d a t i o n , G o l f Channel, Charity Challenge, Wal-Mart, Ana G.

Mendez University, I-Drive NASCAR Indoor Kart Racing and Florida Blue.

The city initiative also includes funding for an outreach worker through The Zebra Coalition, who will provide training both inside schools — for teachers and counselors — and in the community, for after-school program coordinators, parent groups, churches and even workers at businesses around schools.

Televised public service announcements will feature players from the Orlando Magic, Orlando Solar Bears and Orlando City Soccer Club.

Boris said the growth of social media has made the