Locals gather to battle bullying

LYNN – Anyone who has ever been bullied, mocked or unfairly picked on will tell you how traumatic the experience was.Whether they were tripped in the hallway at school, heard unbearable comments being whispered in the lunch room or were chased by unrelenting bullies, those taunted – students, adults and even the elderly – are haunted by their memories.Such stories were shared at the 27th annual Forum on Tolerance at North Shore Community College on Thursday, where nearly a hundred people gathered in solidarity against harassment.Jacqui DeLorenzo, an academic counselor at NSCC who has written a book, “A Thread of Hope,” chronicling her life’s journey, shared one of her painful memories.”I was a victim of bullying from the first grade on,” she said. “I remember when a boy yelled at me using the N word and I didn’t understand what he meant, but I heard the venom in his voice loud and clear.”DeLorenzo said the constant bullying only intensified as she reached the sixth grade, then seventh and eighth, until it became unbearable to tolerate.”The nuns had blind eyes and deaf ears,” she said. “I lived in deep fear and sadness. Every night I prayed that I would die.”One night DeLorenzo said she contemplated killing herself but heard her mother crying in the next room and couldn’t bear to hurt her. With that thought came the thread of hope that she could make it through the hard times.”I realized that I didn’t have to remain a victim, but that I could be the captain of my own ship and set sails toward a journey.”From that point on, DeLorenzo said, she has had the passion to help others realize the same goal, much like teen activist Brigitte Berman, who was also tormented and bullied.”It breaks my heart to hear students say, what if no one will listen or say, it’s just kids being kids,” Berman said. “But this is an issue that we can’t just let kids work out.”With anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying legislation passed in May 2010, Derrek L. Shulman, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of New England, said administrators, nurses, custodians, anyone in the school system, is now required to report bullying if they come across it.”With this law, we will finally begin to make change worthy of our kids,” he said. “We must become active allies and take a stand against bullying. We did it (passed the bill), but that is just the beginning of our campaign.”Berman urged anyone who sees a person who looks pained emotionally to reach out and make their day that much brighter.”You don’t have to be in Congress to make a difference,” she said. “Every day, do one small thing for someone. Hold the door open, smile, ask if they need someone to talk to? because, as a victim of bullying, you think no one cares.”