NEWARK, N.Y. — When high schoolers in Wayne County were surveyed recently, the answers showed one in five girls were bullied online and one in nine had made a suicide plan in the past year. The answers prompted nurses to organize a special conference with 10th grade girls.

Nearly half of the girls in 10th grade in Wayne County went to a conference center for BOCES in Wayne County.

That’s 200 girls, twice as many that came to the first conference last year. Some of the topics are so sensitive, so News10NBC’s Berkeley Brean wasn’t allowed inside. The conference is called “Empower Me.”

“Everything just seems stressful, more stressful than it needs to be,” said Kree Clack, a 10th grader at Lyons Central.

Clack is 14 years old.

Berkeley Brean, News10NBC: “How does something like today’s event help you?”
Kree Clack, 10th grader: “All the people here are here to support you and they give you options when you need help.”

In the Wayne County survey of teens, 25% of girls said they were bullied at least once and sometimes more than five times in the past year.

Brean: “Have you all been bullied before?”
Girls: “A little, yeah.”

Maggie Wanek, Tyler Gardner, and Avery Boogaard went through the conference as 10th graders last year. They’re back as mentors Wednesday. The bullying is mostly online and through their phones.

Brean: “So it follows you home.”
Maggie Wanek, 10th grader: “Yeah. You can’t get away from it.”

The girls say this conference is a safe community.

“And kids I don’t ever hear talking, for the first time I hear them actually talking,” Boogaard said. “And you get to know more about everyone. And it just feels so un judgmental.”

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Wayne County’s preliminary report on risk factors that youth face: https://www.scribd.com/document/780845535/2023-EYS-Wayne-County-Report-2023

Monroe County’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey Report: https://www.scribd.com/document/780845530/2023-24-Monroe-County-YRBS-Report