Annette John-Hall: Ganging up at an anti-bullying event

The most disturbing thing happened last week: At a presentation that was geared to promote peace, near-violence broke out.

What made it all worse was that the incident occurred at - of all places - a church. And it involved a group of students bullying one of their own at an event specifically designed to prevent bullying.

Sadly, I am not making this up.

Obviously the anti-bullying message did not sink in with the group of students from Wakisha Charter School who thought that it would be OK to try to jump a classmate in the house of God. And excuse me, but where were the adults who were supposed to be supervising them anyway?

(I was all set to pose those and many other questions to Wakisha principal Nina Smith. Too bad she didn't return my calls.)

Friday afternoon started out so promisingly at Sharon Baptist. Almost 1,000 students from Philadelphia-area schools had settled in the mega-church's auditorium for a production of the play When the Smoke Cleared, presented by Philadelphia-based iChoose2live, which has spearheaded a national anti-bullying and suicide-prevention campaign.

If iChoose2live sounds familiar, that's because Eagles offensive lineman Jamaal Jackson gave the year-old organization a national shout-out during a recent appearance on The View. Jackson, along with teammates Todd Herremans and DeSean Jackson, appeared on the show to support Nadin Khoury, the Upper Darby teen whose traumatic videoed bullying assault at the hands of seven of his classmates made national news.

Shenille Melton, iChoose2live's 28-year-old founder, says Jamaal and DeSean first saw the play in October at the Philly Urban Theater Festival and came away inspired.

"Jamaal mentioned us on The View, and DeSean tweeted and re-tweeted about us," says Melton, who also wrote and directed the play. "We got so many hits on our website [ichoose2live.com] after that."

So here's what I thought would happen: After watching When the Smoke Cleared - a stark and disturbing story that addresses such teen issues as bullying, suicide, drug use, pregnancy, and HIV-AIDS - the students would talk it out with cast members.

They'd discuss bullying and how the perpetrators, as well as the victims, need support. Because, after all, these are all kids we're talking about. I bet if you asked them, they'd tell you they've been bullied or have bullied someone themselves.

"The No. 1 thing I get teased about is my weight. I'm 5-foot-6 and weigh 262 pounds," offers Siamier Favors, a seventh grader at Eisenhower Middle School in Norristown. "I'd never bully anybody because it's happened to me, and I felt so sad I wouldn't want to put anybody through that."

But at the same time, showing a wisdom beyond his 13 years, he says he knows firsthand that kids who bully need help, too.

"There's this one kid who always comes at me. He's always talking about his family, how they drink," he says. "So he tries to make me feel bad, drag me down with him.

"I guess misery loves company."

The post-play talk-back offered valuable insight from the students. But in the vestibule outside the auditorium, a few choice Wakisha middle schoolers were stirring up their own brand of misery.

In a scene no doubt reminiscent of the Upper Darby incident, at least 20 boys and girls from the North Philly charter school ganged up on their classmate, a 13-year-old boy, according to Melton and other witnesses. No blows were exchanged, but there were plenty of profanity and threats - "This ain't over!" a couple of students hissed at their diminutive victim, who was crying and visibly traumatized.

(A police spokesman said Monday that the dispute was resolved after officers arrived.)

Still, this wasn't what Melton had in mind.

Infuriated, she asked: "How do we get through? How do we give them information that they can absorb and put to good use? You don't come out of the womb bullying. That kind of stuff is learned."

Melton understood why I had to write about the nightmare incident at her anti-bullying event. Ironically, in some ways it brought the urgency of her message home even more.

"I'm heartbroken. But if Wakisha Charter gets bad publicity because of this, well, mission accomplished," she said. "Because it causes more people to understand why this is needed."