Bigger than bullies
<p>Adel Herrera, 12, watches guest speaker Stu Cabe attentively Tuesday during an anti-bullying assembly at Woodland Middle School. Cabe says he travels to schools around the country to teach kids two words, “be nice.”</p>
<p>Motivational speaker Stu Cabe pretends what it was like for Oprah in third grade to convey a message showing the fault of making fun of people who have funny names during an assembly on bullying at Woodland Middle School Tuesday.</p>
<p>Caden Hess 12, left, and Cole Stephens, 12,crack up over a joke told by motivational speaker Stu Cabe Tuesday at Woodland Middle School during an assembly about bullying.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Stu Cabe said he can't believe he gets to fly around the country to talk about two simple words: be nice.
Cabe was at Woodland Middle School on Tuesday morning to speak about those two words to a gym full of students.
He did so by sharing a story about elephants.
The Kootenai County resident told the kids about a documentary he and his wife watched regarding elephants in Africa that were dying of starvation. A nonprofit run by what Cabe called "smart people" came up with the idea that they would transport all of the younger elephants to a game preserve.
When the last of the young elephants was relocated, the group thought its mission was complete. But there was a problem: the animals were ganging up and killing endangered white rhinos at the compound. No one could figure out how to stop the killings.
That is until a park ranger stepped in.
"All of a sudden, the park ranger had a question," Cabe said. "His question was, 'Hey where are all the big elephants?'"
When the "smart people" explained what had happened to get the little elephants to the preserve, the ranger asked another question.
"He asked them, 'Who is teaching the little elephants to be big elephants?" Cabe said.
The "smart people" brought in six adult elephants, who quickly got the younger ones in line and taught them not to pick on the rhinos as well as other important lessons.
"Little elephants do what is popular," Cabe said. "But big elephants do what is right. Which one are you?"
Cabe then compared the story of the big and little elephants to the students' lives and bullying that occurs in school. He said that "little elephants" gang up and often pick on others through cruel words and actions, adding that anyone can be a "big elephant" just by doing the right thing.
"If you have to make your friends laugh at the expense of someone else, I have some news for you," Cabe said. "You're not funny, you're just not nice."
As the assembly came to a close, Cabe encouraged the students to be "big elephants" and do three things: work hard, play fair and be nice.
The assembly kicked off Woodland Middle School's involvement with the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, which has been used in schools around the world and focuses on the reduction and prevention of bullying.
Heather Somers, vice principal, told The Press the school will begin implementing the program Wednesday and that Olweus is not so much a curriculum as it is a process involving weekly meetings between teachers and their students.
"It's going to do wonders for the climate at our school," Somers said. "It gives students a consistent voice and teaches the kiddos on the sidelines how to step in if they see bullying."