Rescuing weakfish

By Rod Rose
THE LEBANON REPORTER (LEBANON, Ind.)

LEBANON, Ind. March 22, 2007 04:22 pm

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Michael Dorn introduced himself and began pulling weapons from his pants.
More than 80 objects — including a 12-gauge shotgun, an AR-15, two swords, one set of brass knuckles and dozens of knives — later, Dorn excused himself, turned around, tightened the belt on his cargo pants by several notches, said, “I’m going to change,” and left the room.
He returned in a suit and tie and for 45 minutes mesmerized the audience at Judge Steve David’s ninth annual Community In-service event, at the Quality Inn in Lebanon. This year’s topic was “Standing Together for Our Youth.”
Dorn’s topic was “Weakfish — Bullying through the eyes of a child.”
He spoke about a bullying victim named Steven.
“Bullying,” Dorn said, “is much like sexual assault.” Rape victims and bullying victims share a chilling statistic: 12 to 15 percent of them never go to authorities, Dorn said.
When a community arrives at the point it decides it must stop bullying, it has already lost the battle, Dorn said.
“A kid can be bullied in front of adults” and they will not recognize the aggression, Dorn said. It is necessary to create “bullying abatement” programs before children become victims.
“Picture a child in your community who is being traumatized,” Dorn said. “There are children in your community who are being victimized.”
Adults have and must use the power to alleviate that pain, he said.
At 7, Steven was raped by two teenagers. He told no one.
Steven suffered from severe dyslexia. While dyslexic students have trouble forming words, they think 200 to 4,000 times faster than other persons. They think in images, not in words, Dorn said.
The family moved to a large city; Steven was one of five white children at his new school, and he was terrified. Steven’s father was hard-working but crude — racial slurs were second-nature to him.
But in that school, Steven was accepted. The single time someone threatened him, other students stood between the attacker and Steven.
One of the differences was that the principal greeted each child, Dorn said. Staff members were everywhere.
Steven sensed the security. “Children know when you really care,” Dorn said. “It’s OK to let people know we care.”
A bully will find a reason to choose a victim, Dorn said. “Physical or emotional differences will draw savage bullying.”
“We have to fight for a child,” Dorn said. Until all students have the right to be free from bullying, the country is tarnishing “the great sacrifice” that hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have made to guarantee their fellow citizens have rights.
Steven’s sense of security dissipated when his family moved. In one middle school, the students were so out of control that a police riot squad had to break up a fight. Steven’s homeroom teacher carried a Colt .45-caliber handgun.
Steven was sent to a private school. The bullying continued. He began to carry a knife.
Then the family moved to Macon, Ga., and he entered Central High School, a school with an outstanding academic reputation — and a population of predators.
Dorn described Steven’s first experience with a “barracuda” — a predatory bully who selected his victims with great care. The barracuda chose Steven.
One day, in a boys restroom, in front of others, the barracuda ordered Steven to his knees and forced him to simulate an act of oral sex. It was humiliating.
Then a teacher did “what a teacher should never do,” Dorn said. “She left the classroom.”
She left the barracuda, “the most dangerous student in the school,” in charge.
Steven was made to repeat the faux sex act. Then he was “savagely beaten.” When the teacher returned, a bloody Steven was trying to stagger to his feet.
None of his classmates would say what had happened. Steven said he tripped.
Then, during an ROTC class, Steven was slashed with a boxcutter. No one had seen what had happened. Steve went to the ROTC instructor, who was “retired on the job,” to report the attack. The instructor did nothing.
Nor did other school officials. They were aghast that the sparkling reputation of Central High School would be tarnished. “They were so concerned for the reputation of the building, they wouldn’t care for the students,” Dorn said.
Steven began to carry a handgun to school. Then he graduated to a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun.
But Steven found people who helped him emerge from the trauma, Dorn said. There was a friend, John Strickland; a bus driver, Mr. Cannon; Bob Bell, a Boy Scout Leader who “turned out one Eagle Scout after another.” A teacher, a single mother, drove 2-1/2 hours each day to study for an advanced degree and still found time to mentor Steven.
“These people gave and gave and gave without asking,” Dorn said.
It is not painful to talk about what happened to Steven, Dorn said.
Steven Michael Dorn only becomes emotional when he relates “what these people did for me” to help him overcome his childhood of savage abuse.

Rod Rose writes for the Lebanon (Ind.) Reporter.

LEARN MORE:
ABOUT Michael Dorn: Dorn has written more than 20 books on child safety. He became a police officer at 18 and by 27 had been promoted to chief of a school police unit. He is executive director of Safe Havens International; he is considered one of the world’s top school safety experts; has completed more than 3,000 hours of advanced training, including with the Israel National Police, Israel Defense Forces, Mossad and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Academy.
About Safe Havens: www.safehavensinternational.org, where free resources include tactical site surveys, web tutorials, and school climate surveys to assess the level of bullying.
QUESTIONS TO ASK OF SCHOOL OFFICIALS:
How good is the level of supervision of students; is a research-based bullying prevention program being properly utilized; how similar are the perceptions of bullying by the school’s staff to the perceptions and actual experiences of students?

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