FARMINGTON - Selena Garcia knows what it's like to be bullied. It's what made going to school during much of her third grade year at Akin Road Elementary. It's also what made her want to make sure nobody else ever had to go through what she did.
That's why Garcia and the rest of her Girl Scout troop spent much of the day Saturday teaching other girls about what bullying is, what it does to people and how to defend themselves from classmates who want to push them around.
Garcia knows what she's talking about. Now a fourth grader at ARES, she spent much of last year getting picked on by her classmates. Kids would come up to her and say things like, "Just because you wear nice clothes doesn't mean you're pretty," or call her a loser said her mother, Pam Garcia. About a month before the end of the school year some other students pushed Selena down on the playground and kicked her in the head.
"It kind of made me feel like they were trying to mock me," Selena said. "It made me sad."
Selena didn't say much about the problems. When another parent called Pam to tell her about the bullying Selena denied there was anything wrong. It wasn't until another parent called she admitted something was going on.
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That was where things started. Garcia took her daughter to a session on bullying and bought a video on the subject. Garcia, who leads her daughter's Girl Scout troop, played the video for the rest of the troop.
Selena tried a few of the tactics she'd learned -- standing up for herself, then walking away -- and discovered they worked.
Things just kept growing from there. With the girls becoming junior Scouts at the beginning of their fourth grade year they started talking about earning their Bronze Award, the highest recognition Girl Scout juniors can get. The girls started doing research online and put together a series of sessions to explain what bullying is, how to recognize it and how to deal with it. On Saturday, they welcomed about 200 Farmington-area Girl Scouts to Levi Dodge Middle School for a morning learning about bullying. They also asked the girls to take a pledge against becoming bullies.
"Our whole goal with this event was not only to teach children who are being bullied how to do things to stop it, but also, I'm sure there were kids in that crowd who are bullies," Pam Garcia said.
A Lakeville karate school provided lessons in basic self defense.
The eight girls in Garcia's troop led a session. There was an opportunity for kids to make anti-bullying posters and to make beaded bracelets with an anti-bullying slogan.
Several of the girls were nervous about speaking in front of large groups, but all seemed comfortable once they actually had to get up and talk.
"A couple of them were very, very comfortable and even I was surprised," Pam said.
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Selena was among the most comfortable, standing in front of a crowd and talking about the definitions of bullying. When girls started chatting among themselves, she asked them to be quiet and pay attention.
"I think her being bullied for a year makes her so passionate to want to help someone else that I think her confidence was strong," Pam said. "She said she felt so good when she walked out there knowing she might have touched one person in that group."
Selena said she liked the idea the things she was saying might make things even a little bit easier for some of the girls she was addressing.
"It felt good, because now you're teaching them not to bully and you're teaching them how to defend themselves," she said.
That doesn't mean it was always easy. Selena had to call for attention from her audience a few times, but she kept control of the situation, waving a wand with a pointing finger on the end.
It was big project, and Pam said it's a relief to be done with it. She said earning a Bronze Award a little more than two months after becoming eligible is "phenomenal."
The effort won't stop here, either. Pam said the ARES counselor has asked if the scouts, five of whom attend the school, would be willing to make presentations to classes at the school.
Selena, who said her fourth grade year has been much better so far, is excited to keep things going.
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"I told my mom I want to help as long as I can to stop bullying," she said. "I think I found something I was good at, and it felt good when I was up there helping those girls."
