Teen Gives Anit-Bullying Advice To Other Teens

Brigitte Berman, an 18 year-old freshman at New York University, is now using her past bullying experiences to help teens. She used this, as well as other peoples stories, as inspiration to write a book - "Dorie Witt: A Guide to Surviving Bullies" which is now being used as part of the curriculum in about 20 schools across the state.

Brigitte now does presentations at schools spreading the anti bullying message to teens, including recently at the Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech.

She told the students about her experience in eighth grade when her best friend stopped speaking to her and all of the girls in her grade followed suit. One day, she walked into the cafeteria for lunch and no one would let her sit down, blocking seats with legs or bags.

The pain of that moment is something she still carries with her, she said. But it also prompted her to take action.

"Yes, I was hurt," Berman said, "but what am I going to do with that?"

That's when she decided to write her book where she encouraged students to use their voices, both to ask for help if they were being bullied and to speak up against bullying they observed.

At Voc-Tech, Pat Thibeault and Diane Hodge, two ninth-grade health teachers, have used the book to spark discussion in class while also asking ninth-graders to keep a journal responding to different sections of the book.

"I think it's made them think a little bit more aware," said Thibeault. She added later: "I think it has been very eye-opening to them that they're not the only ones who've gone through this."

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