Bullying Addressed at Greenport Assembly

Bullying used to mean name calling on the playground, in the halls, or at lunch –  but in the Internet age, bullying can follow students home on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

"We had an incident with some stuff on Facebook earlier this year and with what's going on in the media, we are trying to be more proactive when it comes to bullying," said Superintendent Mike Comanda.

Retired retired Suffolk County Police Officer and Education Consultant Paul Failla spoke to junior high students during a Thursday assembly on character development and anti-bullying. Failla, who describes himself as the big Italian cop actor dude, engaged the students on a broad array of topics including everything from respect, diversity, dignity, profiling, and values.

"If you give respect, you get respect," Failla explained to the junior high audience.

Failla told the students you need to have respect for yourself and told them people who lack self-esteem often get into trouble because they make destructive choices. One of the choices he considered particularly destructive is sexting. Sexting is taking sexual images or messages and sending them via cell phone or instant messaging.

According to Failla, taking, sending, or receiving sexually explicit images of someone under 18 is a crime in New York State because it is considered possessing child pornography. Just because you delete the message, Failla said, do not think those images go away because the records from your cell phone is imprinted and the Suffolk County Computer Crimes Unit can find it.

"When you make that choice of sexting, your reputation is destroyed," said Failla.

Failla also cautioned the audience about the perils of social networking sites such as Facebook. Noting that colleges and potential employers will look at the pictures they post, he told students to have respect for themselves and refrain from putting anything damaging on the site.

"Watch what you put out there [on the Internet] because it's there forever," said Failla.

During the two –hour presentation, Failla shared stories from his black book of heroes, which held students who either heard his program and went on to greater things or who overcame personal challenges. He also lauded persons who acted bravely and remained true to their values in the face of death such as Columbine student Rachel Joy Scott who refused to deny her love of God with a gun pointed at her head.

"You live for your values but you die for your beliefs," explained Failla.

Explaining that some acts of violence are caused by individuals who were bullied and then made destructive choices to end the bullying, Failla told the kids slurs based on someone's sexuality, race, or ethnicity are unacceptable.

"Tolerance is a word you hear for the rest of your life. Quite simply tolerance means acceptance," he said.

Failla's told the students if they are physically or verbally tearing apart another person, it needs to stop immediately. Bullies are the exact opposite of winners, he said, and a lack of self-esteem drives bullying. He said after today, if you were a bully, he expects it to end because adults do not tolerate being bullied by other adults.

"If you sit on the computer bullying and think you're anonymous, we're going to get you," Falia said.

Failla has given his character development presentations across the country and has spoke to students at in the past.