WESTBROOK, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- Community leaders in Westbrook held a public forum at its middle school to address the ongoing issue of bullying. They have been training high school students as advocates to help change bullying in youth culture.

This spring, Victoria Pabst went public about her experiences being bullied and the Westbrook community has since looked in to ways of reducing it.

Pabst attended the meeting and said, "People from the school system, its important that they speak up and that they are here but it needs to be the peers that talk to because they set the tone."

Westbrook High Schools substance abuse counselor, Bruce Dyer, says, "this year sophomores through seniors have been trained and they put on programming, do skits, share stories, and encourage their peers to do the right thing." Saying that, "this work can best be done from the inside out."

About 40 people attended the meeting.

Westbrook community leaders plan to hold another public forum to discuss youth using social media safely.

 

NEWS CENTER