Return to take on bullies: Former student teaches Wood Hill children anti-bullying ideas

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January 15, 2009

Former student teaches Wood Hill anti-bullying ideas

Andrew J. Brescia

When other high school seniors are feeling the stress of college applications, Lawrence Academy senior Kelsey Heavey, of Andover, is taking advantage of her vacations and free blocks of time in her class schedule to conduct workshops on bullying for students at Wood Hill Middle School.

After explaining to each class why she was returning to her former school to discuss bullying, Heavey coached students in small groups to perform in their own skits on the subject. Following performances lasting only 1 or 2 minutes, students were invited to comment on what points about bullying had been illustrated in each of the skits.

"What I found most interesting," Heavey said, "was seeing them perform the skits because you know [that] what they say in the skits comes from what they have said or heard." After the skits, when Heavey responded to written comments and questions submitted anonymously by the students, she explained how she understood firsthand what it feels like both to bully and to be bullied.

At the end of each class, the 17-year-old aspiring lawyer left the students with three challenges: to think before they speak, to reach out to someone who is being bullied, and to talk to someone if they feel that they are being bullied.

"Bullying is not necessary; it does not need to happen. If you tell someone, people will help you," she said during her most recent visit on Dec. 23.

The idea of conducting the workshops came to her during a 2008 summer internship in the offices of District Attorney Gerry Leone.

While copying materials for a presentation, she was introduced to newspaper stories of domestic violence and came to believe that if she worked to reduce teenage bullying, she could help reduce adult acts of domestic violence — as well as reduce the tolerance of such acts by victims and witnesses.

When she approached her former teacher Chip Gregory and proposed conducting a workshop like one she had seen done for adults, he happily welcomed her back to Wood Hill.

"I was so happy to hear from a former student who was interested in speaking to the students about this topic," Gregory said. "As a young person who is still in high school, she has immediate credibility with our students, and her ability to connect with them proved to be remarkable."

Heavey's Lawrence Academy adviser for two years, history teacher Eileen Keever, is not surprised.

"No matter how big or small the endeavor, Kelsey dedicates herself to doing her best. Not only does she want to succeed, but she makes those around her push themselves with her enthusiasm and diligence," said Keever.

That's apart from the senior's modesty, she adds. Keever did not know the extent of what Heavey had been doing until recently.

"When she let me know she was going to be leaving school during the day to work on 'just something I'm doing at my sister's school,' she completely downplayed both the size and importance of her project," said Keever.

In the summer of 2007, Heavey participated in the National Student Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. The special focus of her work was on law and advocacy.