By Harold Reutter
harold.reutter@theindependent.com

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Independent/Scott Kingsley Nick Zadina (from left), Ashley Spessard, and Brandon Rohe answer questions from Central Catholic middle school students following their performance that addressed bullying, body image, and drinking issues. Independent/Scott Kingsley Ashley Spessard watches RESPECT members during the groups stop at Central Catholic Monday morning. Click Thumbnails to View

That was the message three members of RESPECT brought to Central Catholic Middle School students Monday.

Ashley Spessard played Liz, Nick Zadina played Aaron and Brandon Rohe played T.J., three friends in middle school, who went through all those problems.

In the first skit, T.J. was the new, shy student in middle school. He tried to make friends by joining projects and groups. But Liz, who was having a hard time at home, decided to take out her frustrations on T.J. by making fun of him.

Because T.J. was a bright student, Liz got her science teacher to make her T.J.'s lab partner. But Liz never did any work and could not answer any questions about the project. As a result, she got an F on the project, while T.J. got an A.

Liz thought T.J. told the teacher and that's what she told all her friends. That night, T.J. found about 20 abusive, bullying e-mails from students at school. His mother saw one of the e-mails and reported it to the school, causing Liz to get suspended.

Liz blamed T.J. until Aaron told her that he talked to the science teacher and discovered the teacher assigned the F because Liz couldn't answer any questions about the project.

Liz eventually saw how badly she had been treating T.J. and eventually became his friend.

The next year of middle school, Liz began having body image problems and developed anorexia, an eating disorder that eventually landed her in the hospital, where she began to get help for her condition.

The final year of middle school, it was Aaron's turn to get into trouble. He was on a basketball team that won a championship. Students decided to celebrate with a party at Aaron's house and Aaron's older brother decided that it would only be a real party if alcohol was provided.

Aaron ended up drinking the most of anybody and passed out from alcohol poisoning. He had to be revived at the hospital, where his stomach was pumped.

Middle school students were asked to write questions on cards, which Spessard, Zadina and Rohe stepped out of their characters to answer.

Zadina noted that bullying typically has three components. He said the bully is typically trying to demonstrate his or her own power. They also are intentionally trying to harm somebody. Bullying is also repeated behavior.

Spessard said that girls often use relational aggression to bully. They exclude somebody from a group or they say bad or mean things about their victim to other people.

Zadina noted that students can try to greet the person and try to include them in the group. He noted that that can be hard for students to do because they feel they may be the next person to be excluded or bullied.

Spessard said body image problems cannot always be easy to detect. Sometimes the clues are not just failure to eat, or bingeing and purging. She said use of diet pills and a compulsion to exercise all the time can be signs of problems as well.

Zadina said that not every drinking incident will result in a dramatic situation such as a student ending up with alcohol poisoning.

But he said students still can end up in trouble, such as being "MIP'ed" or cited for minor in possession of alcohol. Even people who are not drinking can be MIP'ed if they are present where alcohol is being consumed.

Rohe noted that if a person begins drinking by age 14, he or she is much more likely to develop a drinking problem later in life.

Zadina also noted that he had a friend who died as a result of a situation that was very similar to the skit. He said there was a big party following a sports championship and one of the players on the team ended up drinking too much and passing out in his car.

Evidently, the person got the car's transmission engaged and the car ended up rolling into a bonfire after everybody else had left the party. Zadina said his friend ended up burning to death.

Following their presentation to middle school students, the trio from RESPECT did another presentation called "Reporting" for high school students.