IN THE CLASSROOM:Playing the bully

Eric Harmon and Gabrielle Hoover got to bully others Thursday at Davis Elementary School — and they had their teacher’s permission to do it.

It wasn’t real bullying, though. The FantastiKids, a performance troupe that presents shows on drug abuse, safety and other topics, had come to Davis Elementary to do a play on bullying, and the producers asked for students to portray some of the bit parts. Eric and Gabrielle got the roles when their sixth-grade teacher, Tammy Evans, recommended them.

Early in the show, FantastiKids cast member John Morphis, playing a school bully, shared a scene with Eric, who portrayed his domineering father. Morphis tried to explain why he was angry and lashed out at others at school, but his dad didn’t lend him much of an ear.

“You never help around the house, you lazy good-for-nothing!” snapped Eric, 12.

A moment later, the girl Morphis had been tormenting complained to her friend — and the friend, played by Gabrielle, wrongly claimed that Morphis was miserable because he had no father. As the cast members later explained to the audience, these were the two major types of bullying: the aggressive, in-your-face kind and the subtler one, involving gossip and spreading rumors.

Three grade levels filled the multipurpose room on Thursday morning to see the FantastiKids show in which bully Morphis got counseling from his fellow thespians and learned to divert his rage into doing volunteer work. At the end, after Morphis helped an elderly woman across the street, the cast changed his title from “Anger Man” to “Mr. Magnificent” — and rewarded him with a crown that got stuck on his head.

Throughout the 40-minute show, the actors posted placards around the stage with messages such as “I will take responsibility for my actions” and “Knowledge gives me real power.”

Several students after the assembly said the message hit home. Eric, mild-mannered once again, said he agreed with the show’s argument that most bullies were insecure people seeking power over others.

“They’re like the puppeteers and everyone’s their puppet, so they want to control everyone,” he said.

His classmate, Melanie Daw, 11, said Davis had its share of conflict between students, but not so much of the physical variety.

“It’s more teasing,” she said.