BALTIMORE – Schools in the Baltimore region are spotlighting anti-bullying efforts as part of National Bullying Prevention Awareness Week.

We need to raise awareness about this critical issue, said Julie Hertzog, spokeswoman for Parent Advocacy for Educational Rights Center headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., lead sponsor of the initiative.

Schools in the Howard system are sponsoring student-led campaigns to empower students to speak up about bullying by telling an adult or teacher about incidents they ve witnessed.

Bellows Spring Elementary School in Ellicott City is using an Internet safety workshop to educate students on cyber-bullying, assistant principal Ed Cosentino said.

We don t want parents to assume the Internet is just an innocent educational tool, he said.

In Harford County, students will participate in a youth conference Friday and develop solutions to tackle bullying that will be followed up at their schools, said Mike Seymour, supervisor of equity and cultural diversity for the school system.

Bullying is a very serious offense, and we don t want thoughts [of bullying] dominating their minds when they should be focusing on education, he said.

The Baltimore County system has several ongoing anti-bullying initiatives, school system spokesman Charles Herndon said, including educating students and staff about cyber-bullying and providing them with warning signs of bullying, such as torn clothing.

In Baltimore City schools, parents were informed recently about the importance of reporting bullying or harassment, school spokesman Vanessa Pyatt said.

Our parent information guide spells out our expectations regarding safety and security in the schools, she said.

In Carroll, South Carroll High School students have been educating students about accepting others as a way to prevent bullying, said Maggie McEvoy, a student member of the school board.

In Anne Arundel, bullying is addressed through the system s character education program, school system spokesman Maneka Wade said.

We discuss what it means and cyber-bullying, she said.

We also have an anonymous hotline that students can call, 1-877-676-9854, to report anything that s happened to them or anything that they ve witnessed, she said.

– T. Johnson