SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) -
When it comes to helping teens cope with bullying, who better to help them deal with it than someone who's been through it?
Nick Prior is a senior at East High School, he's a good student, active in sports and the student body, a role model for lower classmen. But, a couple years ago, Prior's portrait was much different. "I used to go to a previous school I transferred to East High my sophomore year, and I left because I was bullied quite frequently," Nick Prior a senior at East High School said.
He says students called him names and teased him. "I got made fun of for my hair, we were on a trip once, and someone stuck gum in my hair," Prior said.
Prior wishes there were programs like this when he was younger. He's hoping today's program will help him become a peer mentor to reach all the other Nick Prior's out there, and prevent school bullying. "I know it's helped me a lot because I can say, okay, here's what the people were doing wrong, I can take this and say okay here's how you should have handled this"
Alan Heisterkamp is one of the program's instructors. He's teaching kids about violence, bullying, and different types of abuses. He's also harnessing the positive power of peer pressure to remind students to reflect on their actions. "Should I be responsible for saying something, or doing something, or other people thinking the same thing I am thinking because if they are, I am more likely to respond, and then what do I do?" Heisterkamp said.
Deborah Vanpersum says she has not witnessed any bullying or violence in her years of teaching at East High, but says, programs like this could help, when adults are not present. "Teachers can come into the classroom and teach the different stuff that we work on, in this MVP training, it's not going to come across the same way," Debra Van Peursem said.
Prior is now waiting to find out which colleges he's been accepted to, and while he's glad he won't have to relive the difficult times, he says he hopes he, and others, can benefit from lessons learned.
