By Khalida Sarwari
Nearly 250 people on Tuesday night attended the first in a series of meetings on the impact of bullying in San Jose schools.
The meeting, held at the Cambrian Park United Methodist Church by People Acting in Community Together, or PACT, was held to bring awareness to the issue and call on school officials to respond to what they claim is an epidemic in San Jose schools and communities.
Signs posted around the church highlighted statistics on bullying, such as that “42 percent of kids have been bullied online and 1 in 4 have had it happen more than once,” and “Every 18 minutes, someone commits bullycide.”
Ashley Garnica, a former Prospect High School student, was one six people who gave an emotional testimony about her experience with bullying and cyber-bullying. She said she had been bullied starting in fifth grade and at six different schools she had attended.
Garnica said she should have graduated this year, but that the bullying got so bad she decided to leave school the fall of her junior year.
“I feel like I was cheated out of a full high school experience because of the bullying and harassment I faced,” Garnica said.
During a question-and-answer session, two school officials — Campbell Union High School District Superintendent Rhonda Farber and Union School District board member Janice Hector — admitted that there is a problem with bullying in their schools.
“We try hard to be very proactive,” Hector said. “If there’s even one child who’s being bullied, that’s a problem. Our goal is 100 percent of our children should feel safe.”
She said the district has implemented programs to prevent bullying, such as a leadership training to teach students about responsibility.
Also at the meeting were elected officials, among them San Jose Vice Mayor Judy Chirco and newly elected District 9 Councilman Don Rocha. Both said they are willing to support the efforts of the community to find lasting and systemic solutions to bullying in schools.
After the meeting, one 63-year-old man said although he’d never been bullied, he had seen it happen to his friend 50 years ago.
“It’s worse now because you don’t get away from it when you go home,” Robert Orr, a technical writer from San Jose, said, referring to cyber-bullying on social networking websites and via text messages.
He said he had come to the meeting in support of the family of Amanda Brownell, a Del Mar High School student who was driven to attempt suicide two years ago. Orr said Brownell tried to hang herself, and in doing so suffered brain damage and is now a quadriplegic who requires constant care.