Miss Florida no longer silent about bullying

They teased her because of her height, making gorilla noises when she walked by. She quit swimming, her passion, to become a cheerleader and fit in.

And when she attended a sleep-over with the popular girls, she said, they chased her outside and beat her until she passed out. "I didn't go to bed because I thought they would kill me," Jaclyn Raulerson said.

And still she kept quiet.

"Guys, I have been there," Miss Florida 2010 told a group of middle school students recently. "I was more willing to take the abuse than to tell someone."

Now, motivated by her experiences, the 5-foot-11 Plant City native has become a sought-after speaker in the anti-bullying movement.

Earlier this month, the daughter of Plant City Mayor Dan Raulerson addressed the Hillsborough County School Board. In August, she was honored by Rose Ferlita, the former Hillsborough County commissioner who launched the county's Bully Busters anti-bullying program in 2009.

And she's working with Community Tampa Bay and the city of St. Petersburg on their "Stop Bullying Now!" campaign.

The 2009 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey reported that 28.4 percent of middle school students were fearful or worried about bullying, which it defined as physical (kicking or shoving), verbal (teasing or name calling) and cyber (mean text messages or e-mails).

"Being different in looks caused a lot of my peers to tease me," Raulerson told the Hillsborough School Board on Nov. 16. "That teasing eventually became physical abuse."

Raulerson transferred to another school and went on to graduate from Durant High School.

But she said many students don't have adequate support and spend their childhoods in a "very dark and scary place." She's campaigning to change that.

"As Miss Florida, and potentially as Miss America, my goal is to stop bullying throughout Florida, and potentially throughout America," she said.

Efforts to combat bullying in Hillsborough include an online reporting system through the school district and Bully Busters, a multiagency public education program prompted by accounts of humiliation and violence at Walker Middle School.

More than half of all children have witnessed at least one incidence of bullying at school, according to Bully Busters, which blames bullying for 15 percent of all school absences.

As she recounted her story at Seminole Middle School in Pinellas County, Raulerson paced back and forth, her crown pinned tightly to her long, , blond hair.

Once, Raulerson said, she sat in the corner of her middle school cafeteria, hoping for a signal from the popular girls.

A thumbs up meant she could be their friend that day. "I was seen as desperate," she said.

Some students seemed to relate to her message. Skyler Nickols, 13, said she has witnessed "book checking" — students slapping down another person's books.

Sergio Arenas, 13, said he has seen students pushed and insulted. And some students like to make others feel as if "they're nobody," he said.

Raulerson said her advice to victims of bullying is "don't give up hope" and don't just stand by as others are bullied.

As for the girls who bullied Raulerson? "One is in jail. One is in rehab."

Staff writers Thomas Marshall and Marlene Sokol contributed to this report.