Witnesses with the courage to step forward are crucial to putting an end to bullying, a nationally known child advocate said Friday.

        “Bullies are very clever, and they do it when adults are not around,” said SuEllen Fried, co-author of Bullies and Victims.

        “Student witnesses are the only ones who really have a handle on how much pain is going on.”

        Mrs. Fried and her daughter, Paula Fried, a clinical psychologist and the book's co-author, led a “Bullies & Victims” workshop at the RSVP Conference Center in Loveland.

        The workshop, sponsored by the Academy of Medicine Alliance, drew 60 educators from 20 school districts and agencies. The alliance, a group of physicians' spouses, hopes to reach 10,000 children in Tristate schools this year with its Bullies & Victims Project.

        The National Education Association estimates 160,000 children stay away from school each year because of bullying, which in recent years has escalated into school shootings.

        “We think bullying is a form of child abuse,” SuEllen Fried said. “Our concern is that no child should be abused by anybody.”

        The old philosophy that bullying is a normal rite of passage of childhood is unacceptable, the Frieds said, citing anecdotes of adults who carry the emotional scars of bullying years later.

        The Frieds outlined four types of bullying: physical, verbal, emotional and sexual.

        Targets are reluctant to tell anyone for fear of retaliation. Witnesses worry about being labeled tattlers, SuEllen Fried said, but there's a difference between tattling and reporting.

        “Tattling is getting someone in trouble,” she said. “Reporting is getting someone out of trouble.”

        Becky Sandy, a guidance counselor who attended the workshop, said she and school psychologist Rosemary Becher implemented a “Bullies & Victims” program last fall at Sellman Middle School in Madeira.

        Teachers and parents already see results, she said. Three parents called her last week, reporting changes in their children because they now have skills to deal with bullies.

        “They're getting better grades,” she said.“They feel better about coming to school.”

        E.H. Greene Intermediate School underwrote Friday's workshop, with a $20,000 Ohio BEST Practices grant received for implementing Project NBA (No Bullies Allowed) a year ago.

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