Overlook students see premier of anti-bullying programs
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Gabe Field, Dennis LeMoine and Tim Hoover perform in "Step Up and Doin' the Right Thing" for the seventh and eighth grade boys at Overlook. JOURNAL PHOTO/CAITLYN KELLEHER

Overlook Middle School seventh and eighth graders got a look at two world premiere theater programs on Friday, April 18, that dealt with bullying, intervention and harassment.

The plays "Girl Chat" and "Step Up and Doin' the Right Thing" were presented separately to the male and female students at Overlook through a gift from Tyco/SimplexGrinnell in Westminster.

The plays that were written and performed by Deana's Educational Theater (DET) are written with middle school students in mind, said the group's Executive Director Sher Quaday.

"We feel like the issues that girls and boys deal with are different in these years," Quaday said.

The plays not only dealt with the feelings of the victims and the reasons why the bully was acting in a specific manner, but also the thoughts and the feelings of friends that are caught in the middle. The plays dealt with the issues of changing groups of friends, which is something that often happens at the middle school level.

After the plays the actors, who are all in their 20s and early-30s, hosted a question and answer period for the students in hopes of engaging the students.

In the last few years, Tyco/SimplexGrinnell has paid for other programs from the theater group to come into the middle school. Most of those stories have more dealt with teen dating violence and not as much on the social aspects of bullying.

"We're not just there to help people from being victims but also to help stop the (bullies)," Quaday said.

The Stoneham-based theater group was founded in 1994 after Deana Brisbois, was killed through an incident of dating violence. Brisbois' family and friends recognized the connection between peer and partner violence and developed the nonprofit organization, now a national leader in relationship violence prevention, according to the organization.

The group's performances do not solely deal with issues of dating violence and bullying at the middle school level but the performers also work with students in the elementary school levels and adults in the military.

"The feedback we receive indicate that our programs have an immediate and longterm effect on our audiences," Quaday said. "Our performances have shown to be a great educational tool when used together with a curriculum and other school and community efforts, and has a great potential to effectively reduce relationship violence in all of its forms."

Quaday said there are behaviors that are similar in the issues of dating violence that can be seen in the bullying relationships that develop earlier on.