LISBON — The bullying issue raised at the last school board meeting came up at the Lisbon Village Council meeting Tuesday night, with Lisbon David Anderson Jr./Sr. High School senior Angelina Lewis urging council to work with the school district for the good of the community.

“Thank you for caring about bullying in our schools and community,” she said after thanking Mayor Peter Wilson, council members and everyone present for their time and the invitation to speak.

Lewis spoke before the school board earlier this month to bring awareness to bullying and said it’s time to take the next step together as a community.

“If you truly believe that bullying is wrong, it’s time to do something,” she said.

During her presentation to council, Lewis said the long-standing culture can’t be removed, but can be replaced by creating a new safe and healthy culture. She said the resources are there, there’s a care and a need and said “let’s do something about bullying today.”

She asked for the mayor and council members to work directly with the school district to implement an evidence-based program and curriculum to foster a new culture in the school. She presented council members with starting points for looking into evidence-based programs and she also brought copies of stories about bullying in the community in the school. She then told her own story of bullying, starting when she was a student in Boardman, by people she thought were her friends. She went into great detail about what they did to her, from pushing her off the swing and tripping her to threatening her and making her fearful to go to school, especially after an incident in the girl’s locker room when she was shoved to the ground and dirty pants were shoved down her throat. There was another time that she was tricked into eating brownies that were edibles and ended up “high as a kite.” Her family moved to Lisbon to get away from the bullying. She said the bullying made her feel worthless and try to take her own life.

“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” Lewis said.

She said it’s going to take a village to do something about bullying and urged for Lisbon to be that village.

Councilwoman Dawn Thomas, who serves as council president, said there’s not a lot council can do, but the bullying is “definitely something we can’t condone.”

She told Lewis that unfortunately, there’s bullying everywhere. She said if she wants to make an impact as a young adult, contact some of those organizations that deal with bullying issues and get involved.

“They would probably love to have another voice. Clearly you care. You’ve been a victim and stood up,” Thomas said.

Wilson said that would be something for her to consider and also suggested she run for school board.

When contacted for an update on the bullying situation, Lisbon Schools Superintendent Joe Siefke said the principals of the two buildings, the junior/senior high school and McKinley, were instructed to call the students and parents in, specifically Lewis who spoke at the last board meeting, and her friend that she represented.

“Those conversations went real well. They were happy we were looking into things,” he said.

“We’re moving forward to try to do things better and we’re looking at procedures and policies to make sure we’re addressing all the concerns that students might have,” Siefke said.

School board member Martina Grimm attended the council meeting and said “it is something we are taking seriously and there will be ongoing discussions. We appreciate that Angelina came to speak to us as a group.”

In the immediate future, Lewis will be graduating Sunday, but said she plans to do a walk to raise awareness about bullying sometime this summer. The date will be announced.

mgreier@mojonews.com