Ads promote net
safety, battle bullying
Middlesex County
reaches out to youth
By KEN SERRANO, Home
News Tribune Online June 22, 2005
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JOE McLAUGHLIN /Staff photographer
Samantha Hahn,
the National American Miss Teen for 2005, tapes an anti-bullying message
for the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office yesterday at Lord Stirling
School in New Brunswick. Behind the camera, at left are Jessie Ruvo, and,
center, Brett Miler, who are Comcast producers.
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JOE McLAUGHLIN/Staff photographer
Prosecutor's
Office investigators Laura Callahan, left, and Melissa Terpanick stand
yesterday with children at Lord Stirling School during taping of an
anti-bullying message. |
MIDDLESEX COUNTY — Samantha Hahn has
come a long way since a fellow middle-school pupil hurled loose pieces of sharp
scrap metal in her face during a shop class, sending her to the hospital.
It was one of a string of bullying incidents she said she experienced in the
sixth and seventh grades. It all started with a rumor, she said.
Now Hahn is the National American Miss Teen for 2005. But she has not
forgotten the more than yearlong campaign of threats and physical abuse she
endured.
The Menlo Park Terrace 20-year-old is speaking out against bullying, trying to
reach children dealing with taunts and assaults.
"Name calling can quickly turn into physical abuse and threats," she said
yesterday.
With her tiara neatly in place, her almost luminous smile, and students from the
Lord Stirling Community School in New Brunswick playing in the background, Hahn
spoke into a video camera as part of a new commercial sponsored by the Middlesex
Out-Reach and Education unit, known as MORE, in the Middlesex County
Prosecutor's Office.
"A bully is someone who disrespects you just for being you," Hahn said.
The commercial will be aired on MTV through Comcast and Cablevision throughout
September, aimed at 280,000 households in Middlesex County. Another
commercial on Internet safety, also filmed at the school yesterday, will run on
ESPN2, ABC Family, TLC and HGTV throughout July.
Aside from Hahn and some of the Lord Stirling pupils, investigators Laura
Callahan and Melissa Terpanick of the Prosecutor's Office were also in the
anti-bullying commercial. Freeholder Christopher Rafano also took part in
filming yesterday.
The Internet-safety commercial featured New Brunswick patrolmen Gary Yurkovic
and Jamal James and Sgt. Andrea Craparotta and Agent Suzanne Kowalski of the
Prosecutor's Office.
The commercials follow another from last year that focused on diversity and
tolerance in Middlesex County, sponsored by the MORE unit, county freeholders
and the Middlesex County Cultural and Heritage Commission. The aim was to
reach children during commercial breaks from shows such as "SpongeBob
SquarePants."
The success of last year's commercial led to the expansion of the program and
more money, said Craparotta of the MORE unit.
Last year, her office used $2,500 in grant money for the commercial. This
year, it is spending $6,000 on the two segments, increasing air time and
exposure.
Craparotta said the Internet-safety commercial, also filmed at the school
yesterday, is geared more for parents. Airing it on ESPN2 is an attempt to
capture the attention of fathers, she said.
"It's the best way to get the message out to the male population," she said.
Craparotta said Hahn was approached for the commercial because of the timeliness
of her anti-bullying message.
Aside from representing National American Miss Teen — she won the title in
Anaheim, Calif. in November — Hahn is also New Jersey's anti-bullying advocate,
a volunteer post with the state Division of Criminal Justice's Office of Bias
Crime and Community Relations.
She spoke at a "cyberbullying" conference held by the division in May.
Hahn, a 2003 graduate of Bishop George Ahr High School in Edison and a student
at Circle in the Square Theatre School in New York City, said Internet death
threats were part of the bullying she endured in the sixth and seventh grades.
She declined when asked to identify the Middlesex County school where the abuse
took place.
Her national title and the tiara and banner she wears help draw children's
interest when she speaks at schools, she said. Hahn was greeted with the
waves and surprised smiles of Lord Stirling pupils in the hallways yesterday.
"I have kids sharing their own experiences with me," she said. "Just that
they can open up and speak about the subject — if one kid stands up and shares
personal experiences — I know I've done my job."
Matt Rowack, 13, a seventh-grader at Lord Stirling, had a brief speaking role in
the anti-bullying commercial along with fifth-graders Lorenz Allain and Nyasia
Dumas. Rowack said children resist telling an adult about bullying
episodes because they fear retribution and embarrassment.
"It's a little babyish to tell an adult. It's hard," he said, a problem
the commercial could solve for some young viewers in Middlesex County.
"It'll be easier for them to talk to their parents if they see that other kids
have the same problem."
Children and parents with concerns about bullying can call 877-NOBULLY (877)
662-8559.
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