From School Bully to Role Model
Reformed bullies reveal why they became aggressors -- and why they stopped.
Oct. 13, 2010— -- Kids become bullies for myriad reasons, but it seems as if a single force could have stopped them: zero tolerance for bullying in school.
"If that would have happened, zero tolerance, I would think, I would get sent ... home, get everything taken away from me," said Alex Whirledge of Anaheim, Calif., who was an eighth-grade bully. "It would have stopped."
Alisha Mendez, now a high school senior in Middletown, Pa., said her thirst for attention, which turned her into a middle school bully, would have been quenched faster if her school had had a tough anti-bullying policy and enforced it.
"It would have -- 180, right around," Mendez told "20/20" co-anchor Chris Cuomo.
To date, 45 states have passed laws requiring a range of anti-bullying actions, from implementing prevention programs to reporting incidents to the police. But child behavioral experts say few schools have zero-tolerance policies in place.
"The school needs to be clear about what the ramifications will be for bullying, which most schools are not," said Dr. Gail Saltz, a psychiatrist and author of books about adolescents' thinking.
"There's going to be a price to pay. It's going to be suspension, it's going to be detention, it's going to be something that not only you don't want but your parent [too]."
What drives someone to become a bully in the first place?
"I was a bully because I was being bullied," said Whirledge, now 14 and a high school freshman who plays on the football team.
As a seventh grader, Alex was subjected to the taunting and pushing that seems to be commonplace in schools throughout the United States. Then, in eighth grade, the roles changed. Alex was no longer the victim but the aggressor.
"It felt great," said Alex, adding that being a bully gave him a sense of strength and leadership.
"You taste that powerful feeling of being the one in control. It's very exciting," Saltz explained. "And you can really lose your moral compass."
Alex and his friends were involved in multiple bullying incidents that were never brought to the attention of school officials, mainly because the student victims were afraid of reprisals.
