Panel Discusses Ways To Fight Bullying At Quince Orchard

The Obama administration estimates nearly a third of all middle school and high school students in the U.S. will suffer from some kind of bullying. At the Maryland Stands Up Against Bullying forum hosted at on Monday, local students said the problem extends to our area.

"While our staff and our administration is trying to cut it down, it's still happening," said a Quince Orchard student, who sat in the audience listening to the discussion with her friends.

was part of Maryland First Lady Katie O'Malley's campaign to fight bullying through a variety of Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week events around the state.

Although the first lady could not join the panel of doctors, government representatives and students at Quince Orchard on Monday, she did call in at the beginning of the live show.

"It isn't just something that we have to all accept. Everybody thinks that 'Oh, well when you're a teenager or in middle school you get made fun of sometimes'," she said. "But that's really not the way it is supposed to be. We don't have to accept bullying as the norm, actually we have to make it something that is not the norm."

Dr. Al Zachik, a child psychologist and Director of Children's Mental Health in Maryland, said bullying is a serious threat to children and teens throughout the state and has even led to suicide.

"We find bullies often will pick on children who are more intimidated or are smaller children, who aren't able to stand up for themselves," he said. "We know that there is a much greater incidence of suicide by children who are bullied. We also have to think about the bullier -- they also are young people who need help. We have to try and get some support for both the person who is bullying and the person who is being bullied."

With the popularity of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, cyber-bullying has introduced new dangers.

"One of the major difference between traditional bullying and cyberbullying, is cyberbullying is something that happens 24-hours a day," said Kellep Charles of Security Orb. "Regular bullying if it happens during school, you go home and you have your little safe haven for a little while. If somebody creates a webpage about you and is tweeting and texting you 24/7, that kind of thing takes a toll on you."

In March, President Barack Obama called attention to the issue of bullying by hosting the White House Conference of Bullying Prevention. At Quince Orchard on Monday, President Obama's Special Assistant for Education Roberto Rodriguez said the Obama administration is taking the problem very seriously.

"Bullying can have devestating impact," Rodriguez said. "It's got negative impacts on their school performance -- we have fewer kids attending school because of bullying -- and it has negative impacts on their performance in school, and that directly threatens our competitiveness moving forward. We need every student to be safe and secure as they move toward graduation."

In order to combat bullying, Rodriguez said students, parents and school communities need to come together to recognize the problem and fight it.

As part of Maryland's Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week, the first lady is conducting several similar events at schools around the state. But this was the only event that was produced in partnership with CBS radio.

Takira Winfield, spokesperson for the first lady, said they approached WPGC-FM about the event, because the radio station was already bringing up the issue independently.

"We were blown away by the amount of time and importance they paid to this event," she said. "It was a great way to connect with a diverse range of young listeningers."

Justine Love, Director of Community and Public Affairs at CBS Radio, said they chose to hold the event at Quince Orchard because of the diverse student body.

"We knew this school was diverse and we wanted to show that because the world is diverse and these issues impact every type of person," she said.