POULSBO — When it comes to bullying, victims’ biggest defense systems are their peers. However, all too often even well-meaning students are swept into a sea of silence by the swelling demands of adolescent popularity.

Seattle’s Taproot Theatre Company visited Poulsbo Junior High School Monday and presented the play “Witness” — written by Nicholas D. Hubbard — in attempt to help students speak up.

“We’re watching. We’re like witnesses,” character Pauleen said in an open letter to bullies. “Our words will build a wall that your harassment and violence can’t get through. We are witnesses waiting to be heard.”

According to statistics which opened and sustained the Taproot Theatre’s presentation, 80 percent of nationwide adolescents report being bullied at school year while in 54 percent of the cases, students reinforce bullying with their silence.

“It’s important to stand up and not let just a couple of people engaging in negative behavior control or influence the majority,” said PJH principal Matt Vandeleur. “I’m hoping that (students) will have an expanded understanding of bullying in that it’s not just a physical thing.”

While Vandeleur and PJH students both said extreme physical bullying does not have a strong presence in the Panther school halls — sometimes words can cut deeper than any stick or stone.

“I haven’t seen a lot of it, but I do hear some verbiage that I will call the kids on, and they usually respond with, ‘We were just jokin’ around,’” Vandeleur said. “The question is, ‘How is it being received by the other kids?’”

In Taproot’s presentation, an adolescent-aged, geeky school reporter named Brad is routinely accosted by older, more popular bullies. However, when the two bullies are approached about the matter by their teacher, Mrs. Fox, they use the excuse that they were only messing around and they didn’t mean any harm. Mrs. Fox lets them off with a slap on the wrist.

However in Brad, the witness’ world, the torment complicates an already stressful situation that mixes school and deadlines with the problems of wondering why he is being bullied and what he can do to take care of the situation.

“What am I supposed to tell the teacher, they did it again?” Brad asked.

It isn’t until a former victim of bullying, Pauleen, and another onlooker, Coral, stand up for Brad that the bullying finally ends.

“I would probably stand up to them,” PJH eighth-grader John Purser said when asked what he’d do if he saw a fellow student being bullied. “I think it tears them up inside.”

Though that kind of response is much easier said than done, Purser said he feels that mean-spirited people should, “Just stop acting like jerks to each other. Stop calling people names, and help each other out.”

The presentation of “Witness” was just one of many outlets through which Poulsbo Junior High is taking a stand against bullying and continuing its quest for empathy and acceptance, Vandeleur said.

Earlier this year, members of the PJH administrative team visited each of the school’s science classes to give a presentation on harassment and bullying and to answer students’ questions on the matter.

Last week, PJH students switched roles as they put together empathy presentations regarding different situations that other kids in the school had experienced. The following day, each home room class discussed the topic.

“Hopefully, through a multitude of different approaches we’ll be able to teach the kids a few different avenues that they can go down to approach this,” Vandeleur said.