LAYTON -- Mountain View Elementary students can now call a school hotline to report bullying.
Principal Don Beatty said the hotline is the brainchild of Brad G. Christensen, director of student services for Davis School District.
Mountain View as serving as the pilot school for the program.
"Our old program worked well in cases that it fit, but there is a secondary bullying phenomena, and that is witnesses of bullying," Beatty said.
About 56 percent of all students across the country have witnessed some type of bullying while at school, according to the website bullyingstatistics.org.
Also, one in four children nationwide have experienced some type of bullying at school.
About 160,000 students miss school every day throughout the country out of fear of being bullied, according to the website.
That number is growing as more children and teenagers use social networking, so it is up to parents and school officials to help students understand how to recognize bullying and who to report incidents to, officials said.
A child who witnesses a bullying incident, whether it is on the playground, in the hallways, in the lunchroom, on a bus or even in their neighborhood, may also be afraid.
"We want our students to feel safe and empowered," Beatty said.
The school spent several hundred dollars to make bracelets that state "Beat the bully. I've got the power" for all 850 students.
The bracelets also have a phone number for students to call to report bullying incidents they have witnessed.
"When we say 'beat the bully,' we're not saying beat them up physically, but beat them at their own game of intimidation," Beatty said.
Administrators went to each class and explained the program as they handed out the bracelets, he said.
Since mid-September, 16 calls have been logged to the hotline, which sends a text to the phones of the principal, assistant principal and school counselor.
It also sends emails to all three as well as to the school resource officer.
Of the 16 calls, three turned out to be legitimate bullying incidents, Beatty said.
Some students called about an incident, but didn't say who was being bullied or where and when it happened, he said.
"We need to know the specifics and have enough details so we can work from there," Beatty said.
Beatty said those students who were the bullies had no idea someone witnessed what they did and reported it.
Other incidents that were called in weren't bullying, but rather were accidents on the playground.
School officials do not want to publicize the hotline number, saying it is available to all who need it and they do not want to encourage prank calls.
Bullying is not tolerated at Mountain View Elementary or in the Davis district. Nor is it tolerated by the state. Utah is one of 45 states with anti-bully laws, according to the Bullying Statistics website.
Another approach to stop bullying is to get parents involved, said Todd Patkin, the Massachusetts author of "Finding Happiness: One Man's Quest to Beat Depression and Anxiety and Finally Let the Sunshine In."
In his book, Patkin shares his experiences on how devastating bullying can be. "I believe parents are the key" in stopping bullying, he writes.
Patkin shared several tips on how parents can stop bullying.
First, parents have to let their children know bullying will not be tolerated. Parents also need to take serious action if their child is caught bullying.
Second, parents should teach their children that it's OK to intercede if their peers are being tormented.
Click here for more information about bullying and how parents can help their child.
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