WESTBROOK – This week, school and community officials are making good on a promise they made in the wake of a controversial case of bullying at Westbrook High School earlier this year, holding a panel discussion on the subject at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 30.

The interactive forum will be in the middle school cafeteria. Panelists will include Christine Thibeault, Cumberland County assistant district attorney and juvenile prosecutor; Mike Pardue, Westbrook director of public safety; Maria Dorn, Westbrook Community Center director; and Bruce Dyer, a drug and alcohol counselor at Westbrook High School.

Radio talk show host Ray Richardson will moderate the event. Richardson said he wanted to coordinate the forum ever since the spring, when high school student Victoria Pabst, 16, posted a letter on Richardson’s website to the school’s assistant principal, Howard Jack, in which she spoke of her frustration with bullying by her fellow students.

That letter, posted in May, led to Jack being placed on temporary administrative leave, but school and community officials all agreed that more needed to be done to address the issue. Richardson said the incident inspired him to help set up the forum.

Richardson said he had Pabst on his radio show, and learned first hand not just how much pain bullying victims feel, but also how much they suffer in silence.

“That really opened my eyes,” he said.

Pardue said this week that he hopes the forum will help to shine a light on an ugly problem that too often hides in the shadows.

“They don’t go home and talk about it. They really just find themselves in a shell,” Pardue said of the victims of bullying. “We are bringing the topic to the forefront.”

Pardue said nationwide, about 30 percent of the teen population, or about 6 million teenagers, are either bullies or victims of bullies.

“That’s a huge number,” Pardue said.

Richardson said he hopes that parents understand this is a complicated problem, especially when it comes to so-called “cyberbullying,” which happens through social networking.

“(Fighting it) is not that easy. It’s far more complicated than just turning off the computer,” he said.

The forum’s goal, Richardson said, is to find answers, though, not to cast blame. He said he hopes parents and children will learn more about how children interact with each other, and how peers can work to stop the problem, especially those other kids look up to.

“You have an obligation to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves,” Richardson said.