Representatives of the new, Calgary-based K.I.D.S. Foundation visited Weyburn last week to raise awareness of its bully-proof program for schools and communities.

Senior project manager Corey Ripley said the charitable organization's bully prevention video and teaching program has received so much interest from schools and communities since it began last fall that it's tough to follow up with enough published information to back up the program's goals

"We've received requests for information from 65 communities," he said, all of which will be funded through donations. So far, corporate sponsors have made it possible for the organization to spread its techniques and information to several schools in Alberta, he said. Now, he's looking for volunteers and sponsorship for Saskatchewan, he said.

The foundation begins with the schools because schools are the most effective means of delivering the message, he said.

The organization provides a handbook called Bully Proofing Your School to each interested school, brochures to send home to parents explaining how to identify children involved in bullying, a video and lesson plan for teachers, posters, and linkage to a website to allow children to confidentially report incidents to a teacher or parent through the Internet. There is no cost to the school to participate.

In Weyburn, Souris and Assiniboia Park Elementary Schools have tentatively set up a web page with the www.stopbully.com website to allow students from those schools to report bullying behaviour to adults on a secure website.

Ripley said two other schools in the city are interested but plan to approach the school board about the program before connecting with it.

APES principal Vickie Betker said she's waiting for the K.I.D.S Foundation brochures to arrive before finalizing the school's reporting website. It looks like it will be fall before everything is in place, she said.

She doesn't think bullying is prevalent in APES, "but adults wouldn't know, would they? We've done a lot in this school division on safe schools and anti-bullying programs and I think we're doing a really good job."

But it's not a one-shot thing, she said. The Violence Intervention Program in Weyburn and Estevan has been in the schools talking about bullying, among other groups, she said. "The schools must keep at it and this is just one more thing to help," she said.

Ripley said not much research has been done on bullying behaviour. "The consensus among educators is that the outcomes are getting uglier, he said.

The first step in stopping it is to take the fear of retaliation out of reporting bullying behavior by either a bystander or a target student, he said. The confidential website for reporting incidents and/or drop boxes in each school helps kids, he said. It's a first step before the behaviour escalates into something more violent, he said.

Local police departments can support the program if they allow the school liaison officer to use the program's information in school lectures, said Ripley.

Weyburn Police Services will review the program when it receives the written information from Ripley, said Police Chief Rod Horsman. "We're looking at that foundation and a couple of other possibilities," he said recently. "There are a number of agencies that provide information on bullying and violence intervention," he said. "We want an ongoing educational process."