Gardnerville man hopes to aid bullied

A Gardnerville parent is seeking to help parents whose children have been bullied in school.

Bob Stulac has started Bullying Intervention Counseling and Support to aid people whose children have been bullied.

"The school is doing stuff, but there's a disconnect between the parents, families and the school," he said. "My whole goal is to provide a bridge between parents and the schools."

Stulac is a state health inspector and teaches biology for nonscience majors at Western Nevada College.

"I'm like a consultant," he said. "I'm just trying to provide free counseling and support for the families of victims."

Stulac holds degrees in environmental and occupational health and is a registered environmental health specialist. He has also received training in suicide prevention through the Suicide Prevention Network.

"Kids thinking of suicide goes hand in hand with bullying," he said.

Prompted by a story about Scarred Hearts In Need of Encouragement, Stulac said he was concerned about how the schools dealt with bullying.

One of the difficulties between parents and the schools is that punishment isn't always something parents can be told about.

"The schools are defenseless because of confidentiality rules," Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School Principal Keith Lewis said. "We can't print it in a newsletter or say what happened. People come away with the perception that we didn't do anything, because we couldn't tell them 'this is what we did.'"

Lewis said that while there was a time when bullies could be left at school, that isn't possible anymore.

"When we were kids we got to leave the bully behind," he said. "We had a case where somebody created a Facebook page about this kid. The mom came in, but it didn't happen here at school. The kids know what to do when they're outside of school and see stuff. We've had pod meetings to tell them 'even when you're at home, while it's not our responsibility, you know the difference between right and wrong.' Tell us, maybe we can help."