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Raid in Iraq Kills Dozens; Bullies at School; Unemployment Rate Still High Despite Added Jobs in March; Doctor Denies Care to Patients Who Support Obama

Aired April 03, 2010 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: One in three children, maybe more, bullied at school. This hour we'll see what's being done to fight it and what can happen when it's allowed to go on. Also ahead --

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They pushed the envelope so far past any reasonable interpretation of the law it's simply outrageous.

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WHITFIELD: The inside story of illegal sales tactics at the world's largest drug company coming up in the 3:00 Eastern hour. In the 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour we'll take you back to one of the forgotten cities in the civil rights movement for an unforgettable story.

Hello, again, everyone, I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and you're in the CNN newsroom.

Encouraging news from the job front. The economy actually added jobs in March. In fact, it was the largest gain in three years. But hold off on the balloons and confetti. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.7 percent.

Those different numbers prompting different kinds of reactions. Republicans criticizing upcoming proposals, and the president of the United States vowing to push ahead.

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BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: All of us know how important work is, not just for the paycheck, but for the peace of mind that comes from knowing you can provide for your family. As Americans and human beings, we seek not only the security but the sense of dignity, the sense of community that work comes first.

That's why it was heartening news in the last month for the first time in more than two years our economy created a substantial number of jobs instead of losing them. We've begun to reverse the devastating slide. But we have a long way to go to repair the damage from this recession. And that will continue to be my focus every single day. REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY, (R) CALIFORNIA: President Obama wants Congress to pass job-killing legislation that would guarantee permanent bailouts for Wall Street.

Under his plan, unelected Washington bureaucrats would be granted virtually unlimited power to pick winners and losers, and hardworking American taxpayers would pick up the tab for the reckless decisions made by irresponsible bankers.

What's worse, this legislation fails to address the root causes of the economic crisis and housing meltdown, the lack of accountability in Washington and on Wall Street. Republicans have proposed a plan to protect taxpayers in the permanent bailout and get rid of TARP.

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WHITFIELD: So if you're one of the 15 million people unemployed, how do you actually land a job or even get a foot in the door? Join us now is April Fawcett Nagel, CEO of first pro, a staffing and executive search firm.

April, it used to be you send a resume and you actually receive almost immediately some sort of acknowledgement in the mail, a phone call or something. These days people aren't getting that. They are wondering, did anyone get my resume? How do you make sure you get some kind of acknowledgement or know you're in the running for a job?

APRIL FAWCETT NAGEL, FIRSTPRO STAFFING: I know. It's like a resume abyss. Your resume is the number one tool getting your foot in the door. It's essential that it's right and it does something for you.

The typical hiring manager is going to look at your resume initially 10, 15 seconds. In that very short amount of time it has to say more yes than know for you to get in the key pile instead of the no pile.

WHITFIELD: In that 10 to 15 seconds, what do you do to make sure they hang on longer? Is it your name that needs to be prominent? Is it the color of the paper or the backdrop of your resume? What is it?

NAGEL: No. It's specific information that's going to be relevant to that job position and that company. You have to do your research upfront. You want to make sure what you have to say about yourself is in that first third of the page. That you have the job title and that job title mirrors the job title that specific company is searching for. Use their same terminology.

WHITFIELD: Right. So you need to study the offer that you're looking for and try to use what could be those trigger words. They want to see commonality here.

NAGEL: Absolutely. And have four bullet points up there, very concise. You want white on your page. Every word counts on the resume. Put thought into it. Have those four bullet points on the top that say why you, why choose you.

WHITFIELD: Some people can be too verbose. And an employer says I don't have the time to look through all this.

NAGEL: And I've been there. I know. Sometimes you're looking more for reasons to say no to that resume than you are to say yes because you want your key file to be small.

So there are certain things you want to not do. You want to make sure you don't have misspellings or grammatical errors. If you have a name difficult to pronounce, if you have a nickname, put it in quotes. Don't give that hiring manager a reason to say, I might be intimidated by picking up the phone calling.

WHITFIELD: So meaning you have to put a pronouncer in there for your name?

NAGEL: Or maybe your name is long and complicated and you have a nickname. Put the nickname in quotes. You do anything you can to make it easy. They are the not going to work. They want it to be easy so you don't want it to go into the "no" pile.

If you are residing in a certain city or state and conducting a job search in another city or state, don't put your local address on there. You don't want them to look and say too much trouble, they live in this state. They are looking in this state. Too much work. It happens.

WHITFIELD: There are other things, too. While you say there are buzz words, you want to find some commonalities and the job you're seeking and what you put on your cover letter so that will catch their attention, there are also other things you want to stay away from completely in your cover letter. What?

NAGEL: You don't want to be too wordy. You want to make sure everything is tailored to that specific company, field. Research the words. Find out what words are hot or important to that company.

WHITFIELD: These are "energy words" you're talking about?

NAGEL: Energy words. Look on their Web site. Words you don't want to you "assisted," "contributed," "organized," those are words that don't say anything. They are too general.

WHITFIELD: That is very common language.

NAGEL: It's very common. It doesn't portray accomplishment.

WHITFIELD: What words do say accomplishment?

NAGEL: Result words, which are "achieved," "completed," "expanded," "reduced," "simplified," "corrected," "launched," "mastered," "initiated." Those are words that say something's been achieved or accomplished. There was some result.

WHITFIELD: Now you're hoping as you reconstructed your resume, your cover letter, you sent this out. You have not received a call back from anyone. You have not even received a letter that said we received it. What do you do without becoming a pest to reach out? Can you make a friend at this perspective employer?

NAGEL: You can. But you also have to remember in today's world everybody is using this applicant-tracking software, and so your resume is in cyber space. You have to have these buzz words in order to be found to begin with.

Once you know you submitted, my advice is take 20 specific resumes tailored to 20 specific job openings and work them. Don't take 1,000 of the same resume and send it out to 1,000 different jobs.

WHITFIELD: People do that all the time.

NAGEL: They feel like they've done something. So in reality, you almost haven't done anything. You won't see a result from that.

So you can make a friend. Call, get some information, get a phone friend, I call it. It's done very successfully. Get on social networks and link in and try to find a connection somewhere, a friend of a friend of a friend.

WHITFIELD: And even go as far as saying, hey, I sent a resume, and follow up and say, do you know whether that was received, in whose hands is it?

NAGEL: Who is making the decision? Do you know if the job is still open? Do you have words of wisdom? Because you want to get that person on the phone if at all possible.

WHITFIELD: April, I know we now inspired a lot of people to re- craft questions that we are starting to see on my blog we are going to pose to you. We'll take a short break now. And then you're going to answer some of these question and hopefully help you land a job. Send your question to CNN.com/Fredricka. We'll get some of these questions answered.

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WHITFIELD: All right, we want to help you land a job. We are back with April Fawcett Nagel, founder of FirstPRO Staffing, as well as Josh Levs with a lot of your questions you've been submitting online.

I bet you this, too, is probably one of the greatest topics people want to respond because there are just too many people out of work. Josh, what are some of the questions?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: They are big time. Any time we say the word "jobs" they start flocking in.

We'll start with this question from Alana because it's really representative of what so many people have been saying. She is saying the slowdown happened when her career would have been starting. Now she says "I'm not sure which industry to look into with a communications degree."

I know this is the kind of thing you touch on. Talk to me, key industries, key directions to go if you're young, you have every opportunity, what direction do you go?

NAGEL: So many kids, so many young people don't get careers ever in the particular field that their education is in. I would say look at everything you have in your background, prior experience, internships, summer jobs, anything that will give you real tangible experience and skills you can profile out there and look in those areas.

You can't go at it in the traditional way. You have to go out there and find something, and then you'll spring board from that.

LEVS: And there fields to avoid? Have you seen from where you are some fields so empty, so desolate?

NAGEL: Real estate, obviously construction, anything related to that is going to be a no-no. Anything in health care is good. Anything in green is good. IT is still good.

I've seen a lot of movement now in sales. Communications can be a good catalyst for sales job, an entry level sales job. Offer to work at an internship rate to get true field experience.

LEVS: This is great. Let me get to the next question. This comes from Cherrie. She is an unemployed public interest attorney. She has over $80,000 in student loans. She was laid off in February. She feels applying online is hopeless. She says the internet makes job reach out to millions, so there is too much competition and you fall through the cracks. To her using the web to apply for jobs is not a good idea.

NAGEL: I think you can use it to find which jobs are out there. Look for postings, and then do as we spoke earlier. You've got to attack that as a specific job, tailor your resume specifically for it. Otherwise if you don't use those buzz words and you don't come up in these search mechanisms, you are going to be just out there lost in space.

And don't make that your only thing. Again, pick 10 or 12 target companies or job postings you want to go after and go after them right from start to finish than just mass-producing your resume out there.

LEVS: Let me tell you that at CNN.com/jobs, we have a ton of resources about all this, the kind of thing April is talking about, including this, which I like a lot, which is a map that tells you what's going on in each state. Or if you're looking for jobs in your state, we keep updating this. It's at CNN.com/jobs.

There's no question online tools out there can help. April is saying use the web, just target the specific one you want and don't give up.

WHITFIELD: Let's hope folks keep their fingers crossed. We'll pay attention to some of your tips. Buzz words, and people need to tailor their resumes and their cover letters, April says, for that job.

Josh Levs, thanks so much. Appreciate hearing from you at home, as well. April Fawcett Nagel, thanks so much, appreciate it.

LEVS: Thank you.

NAGEL: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, at capitals across the country, and everywhere governors actually go there is heightened security now, all because of a letter. What does it say? Keep it here to find out what CNN has uncovered.

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WHITFIELD: A security concern at the highest level of our state government. Letters to many, if not all, according to the FBI, of the nation's governors warning them to step down. We are talking about at least 30 governors.

If not, if they don't step down, say the letters, they would be removed. The FBI confirms that more than 30 governors, both Republican and Democrat, have received the letters. And while investigators don't believe there's any credible threat of violence, security has been beefed up around the governors.

Our Susan Candiotti has spoken with members who say they are actually part of this group that's actually behind the letters. Who are they and what are they saying?

CANDIOTTI: Fredricka, I have spoken, as you said with some of them. The group is called the Guardians of the Free Republic. Their idea is that the government is way out of control. There's too much taxation, too much foreign debt. They believe in common law grand jury set up in each state who can make rulings.

Some of these ideas go back to the Freemen in the mid '90s. This group talks about the restoring of the blessings of liberty. They sent the letters to more than 30 governors, according to the FBI. The ultimatum was step down in three days or else, but they don't go beyond that ultimatum.

I spoke with one of the self-described "elders" in this group and another member of the operation. The elder met with the FBI last Wednesday. Both men who are aware of this meeting said after the meeting, quoting here, "Everything is fine with the FBI."

And as for the letters to the governors, another member said this, "We have no interest in militia groups. We don't expect the governors to step down. We want them to remember that they represent the people and act for the people. They don't represent foreign interests or corporations."

And we know two days after that meeting, a government intelligence note was issued to be aware of those letters to the governors and the so-called extremist groups behind them.

WHITFIELD: So what are the governors doing about these letters? What are they even saying?

CANDIOTTI: We talked to a number of governors who received them, some on the telephone, some on camera. And they said they turned the letters over to the FBI. As you indicated, they said security has been stepped up for the time being.

WHITFIELD: And so what more do we know about the group? How large is this group?

CANDIOTTI: Boy, we would like to know, wouldn't we? It's hard to say. CNN spoke with someone who has seen some of the letters that were sent, and we are told more than 80 signatures were attached to some of these letters. So clearly, they have a good following.

We also know they have a weekly radio broadcast. Here is an excerpt from one show in February.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need the American people to stand up like they never have. You don't have long to do it. If we fail to bring this to pass, America will be a third world nation and you will see American people starve in the streets of America, if we fail.

You can't afford, if not for your sake, the sake of your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren and future generations to come. We have to stand together and galvanize this movement now. We don't have time to wait.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now, the FBI says in the past, some members of these sovereign citizen movements have been involved in violence. This group says it wants no part of that. The FBI says it has no credible threat of violence at this time, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Susan Candiotti, thanks so much from New York. Appreciate that.

A Colorado mother detained in Ireland last month is now in U.S. custody charged with providing material support to terrorists. Federal prosecutors say 31-year-old Jamie Pauline-Ramirez and a Pennsylvania woman known as "Jihad Jane" traveled to Europe to live and train with terrorists and take part in a violent jihad.

Pauline-Ramirez flew to Philadelphia yesterday and was arrested by members of a terrorism task force. Her six-year-old son was placed into custody of child services.

And now a look at our top stories.

The head of the Church of England is apologizing to the archbishop of Dublin. In an interview to air Monday, Archbishop Rowan Williams says the Irish Catholic Church had lost "all credibility" because of the reports of child abuse by priests. His spokesman says the archbishop regrets criticizing the Catholic Church.

And a new approach to screening airline passengers bound for the United States. It involves giving the airlines and security agents real-time intelligence about potential terrorists. That means passengers from 14 predominantly Muslim countries will no longer be automatically subject to extra screening.

And techies lined up for hours to get their hands on an iPad. The new tablet computer went on sale this morning at Apple stores across the country, and of course at some Best Buy stores, as well. The item costs anywhere from $500 to $800. We'll have another look at the top stories in about 20 minutes from now.

"Obama voters seek care elsewhere." That's what a controversial sign says at a Florida doctor's office. We'll hear from the doctor and an outraged congressman who's doing something about it.

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WHITFIELD: This sign at a doctor's office is causing controversy in central Florida. It tells patients who voted for President Obama to "seek care elsewhere."

Urologist Dr. Jack Cassell says he hasn't denied anyone care, but at least one person has complained about the sign and sent a copy to Congressman Alan Grayson, who has filed a complaint with the state medical board. Anderson Cooper spoke to both men about this issue.

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You said you would prefer not to treat people who support the president. If you have that in mind, how can you claim that you're treating them the same? If there is an entire class of people you don't like, your actions toward them will be different.

DR. JOHN CASSELL, UROLOGIST: I didn't say I didn't like them. I just said I want to stir up a little controversy.

COOPER: You think they're morons, according to one of the other notes that you have in your office waiting room. You clearly think --

CASSELL: No. The morons who voted for the health care bill.

COOPER: OK, well, then, your patients who supported Obama and supported people who support the health care bill I guess you would also consider morons.

CASSELL: No, I think the elected officials need to have read the bill, and certainly most of them haven't. They certainly aren't familiar with the timeframe of implementation. That's what I wanted my patients to be familiar with was exactly are they getting into. And I think it worked. REP. ALAN GRAYSON, (D) FLORIDA: It shows very poor judgment. The effect of this the set us back as a country. That's why I'm disgusted by it.

COOPER: Again, he is not doing anything illegal.

GRAYSON: That remains to be seen. He is licensed. There are licensing authorities who are going to look into what he is doing. And I hope that they'll take action, because frankly I think people are disturbed to go onto his office. He's turned his reception area into a shrine of rightwing nuttery.

He said earlier today on Fox News he is upset about the health care bill because old people won't be able to go to nursing homes anymore.

COOPER: Critics to you will say this comes across as a partisan attack and you're using the legal system to pressure someone who doesn't agree with you.

GRAYSON: That's not true. I'm protecting people in my district.

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WHITFIELD: The Florida Department of Health says there is no law prohibiting Dr. Cassell from posting that sign.

A shocking raid in Iraq leaves dozens dead. Officials say the attackers wore Iraqi military uniforms. We'll go live to Baghdad for the details on this story. Plus, the latest on the Iraqi elections.

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WHITFIELD: And 25 people including five women were killed execution style in a raid on a village outside Baghdad. Iraqi officials say the attackers wore Iraq military uniforms.

CNN's Mohammed Jamjoom joins us live now from Baghdad with the very latest. So what more do we know about what happened and who is responsible?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have new developments to report. Officials are now telling us at least 20 gunmen were wearing Iraqi security uniforms. They arrived to the scene of the crime in what appeared to be Iraqi security vehicles.

Officials are also telling us everything killed was shot in the head. They say this has the hallmarks and fingerprints all over it what appears to be Al Qaeda, although nobody claimed responsibility and it's too early to tell who is behind it at this point.

One interesting side notice crimes like this were quite common at the high of the sectarian tension during 2006, 2007, 2008, but it hasn't happened for awhile. And one concern for Iraqi officials is anybody can get Iraqi security uniforms in any marketplace in Baghdad and buy them for under $15 a pop. So there is still a concern, we've seen it. Those uniforms are out there. It's still a concern for Iraqi officials much more so today.

WHITFIELD: Now weeks after the general election, now we are talking about Iraqis being in their second day of voting to support or throw their support for prime minister. The vote was organized by Muqtada al-Sadr supporters. How much power are we talking about them having?

JAMJOOM: Fredricka, this goes to show how complex Iraqi politics are. Elections were weeks ago, but because of the parliamentary system no one bloc ended up with enough parliamentary seats to form a government on their own.

Because of that they need to build coalitions with other parties. There is a lot of political jockeying for power going on. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr came out a few days ago and said we need a referendum that will last two days.

There are a lot of different places in Iraq where he has supporters. They can vote on their candidate for prime minister, and then he would back whoever ends up the victor.

The ballots look like this. They are not official. This is in no way legal and will not affect the outcome of the election. What it is is a game by al Sadr to say I'm the king-maker in this election. If you want to form a government, you have to come to me, respect me, my followers, give us what we want, and then we'll throw our support behind you.

But at this point we don't know that it will affect the outcome in any way. And when we spoke to residents in Sadr City yesterday and today, they said what we want is a government with services that will give us security, and that's why they are voting on this.

WHITFIELD: Muhammad Jamjoom, thank you so much, from Baghdad. Appreciate that.

And now this tragic case of friendly fire in Afghanistan. German military officials say German note forces killed at least five Afghan soldiers in the northern province of Kunduz. Officials say the Germans were on their way to replace other soldiers in combat when two civilian vehicles moved toward them and it wouldn't stop.

That's when an artillery tank opened fire on the vehicles. The troops discovered later Afghan soldiers were inside. An investigation is underway.

And he was kicked out of Myanmar back in 2008. Now one of our own reporters gets back in only to end up in the hands of secret police. It's a back story you don't want to miss.

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WHITFIELD: The political party of democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi won't participate in Myanmar's elections this year -- 115 representatives of the national league for democracy met and decided to not register their party under a new election law.

Myanmar's ruling military junta announced the new law last month which disqualifies Suu Kyi from participating in the elections. Suu Kyi calls the law unjust.

Myanmar's military dictatorship doesn't play around with journalists. If it doesn't like what you're reporting, it will simply come track you down, and fast. CNN's Dan Rivers went to Myanmar, but didn't get to stay long.

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DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, "Back Story." We are about to go to a country I thought I would never be allowed back into. We are going to Myanmar, what's formerly Burma. Here's our kit.

Here remarkably is my journalist visa. Last time I was in Myanmar was a couple of years, and I was actually deported by the military government, kicked out by the country. They were furious with the reports I was doing from there.

And now out of the blue we've been given full journalist visas to go in and report on Army Day.

We are entering Burmese air space and I'm going to put my watch back 30 minutes, but someone we talked to is that it's a little like going back in time 30 years because the country has been in such an isolated bubble since the army took power in 1962.

This is a typical slice of life on the streets. There are electricity generators powered by petrol because the main supply is so unreliable. Here you've got some shops selling mobile phones and electronic gadgets, but they are mostly out of the reach of most ordinary people because it's so expensive to get a SIM card and a mobile phone line.

A lot of people use these land lines, so you can literally come up here, pay some money, and then phone someone in the city.

We can only spend a few hours in the largest city before we have to drive five hours north to the new capital.

It's Friday morning and we just spent the night at this rather "Truman Show"-esque hotel, which is a series of little row houses. There is nothing wrong with it, but the whole thing has only been built three, four years ago. Last time we were here there wasn't even this shopping center, which has now sprung up.

And this whole city has been sort of created from nothing out in the bush in the middle of northern Burma.

We went to the ministry of information, where the other reporters were getting their credentials. But I was called into a meeting with several army offices and secret policemen. My cameraman managed to pick up some of the sound as I was told to leave immediately.

How am I going to get back then? You're going to drive me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We will accompany you.

RIVERS: Am I being officially deported?

The officials were polite, even smiling for my camera, but I hadn't been told why I was being forced to leave or where they were really taking me.

Well, I've basically been told to leave. I've just come back another to pack my bags. Special police are waiting for me outside. So I can't talk very much. It's really weird the way I had the visa and then for no apparent reason suddenly I didn't have the visa. Anyway.

I was whisked out of the capital and managed to snap some shots on the way. On the nearby hillside a brushfire burned out of control. Combined with the country music of the cafe, it made for an incongruous scene and sort of summed up my trip -- strange and mildly alarming.

Well, I'm out. Actually, it was fine. It was a very long, hot journey, and finally they kicked me out and stamped in my passport that I had been officially deported. Here is the proof. If you can see that, "deportee." This is the second time I've been deported from Burma.

I have no idea why they gave me a tourist -- sorry, a journalist visa in the first place and then waited until I got all the way up to the capital, a several hours drive, before they suddenly decided to revoke it. Clearly, they thought that I was someone they didn't want in their country reporting on what's going on there and decided to kick me out.

So now I'm back where this whole saga started at Bangkok's airport, and now to finally go home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Perhaps you want to see more from the "Back Story" team. Go to CNN.com/backstory.

A look at our other top stories today.

A Colorado mom has been indicted on terrorism charges. Federal prosecutors say 31-year-old Jamie Paulin-Ramirez and a Pennsylvania woman known as "Jihad Jane" travelled to Europe to take part in a violent jihad.

Paulin-Ramirez was arrested in Ireland last month as part of a murder conspiracy investigation. Yesterday she voluntarily flew to Philadelphia where she was arrested by members of a terrorism task force. And President Barack Obama and Republicans are taking a vastly different view of last month's job report. That report shows the economy added 162,000 jobs in March, the highest monthly increase in nearly three years.

The president says the boost reveals the worst of the recession is over, but Republicans point out a large portion of the job growth is attributed to temporary census hiring and overall unemployment has not gone down.

The countdown is officially under way for the crew of "Discovery." Blast off is set for Monday, destination, the International Space Station. Only three shuttle missions remain after this one. After that, NASA plans to ground the shuttle fleet.

And where have our iReporters been lately? Stick around to walk in their shoes.

And Josh Levs is here because we always look forward to the viral video moment.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We've got so many good ones today, Fred. I don't know how we'll pack them all in, but we will.

Starting off with these guys -- cheerleaders, unlike anything you've seen before. They've got serious moves.

WHITFIELD: These are guys.

LEVS: They're guys. They're taking the Internet by storm with some amazing choreography. They are aiming to get on "Ellen."

Plus, every week I show you some people's amazing talents. Check out this next video. This guy uses business cards as though they are ninja stars. Always the amazing skills. This, plus adorable babies and Fred's moment of Zen. That's all ahead today.

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WHITFIELD: Instead of our usual stories from the water cooler today, we are taking a stroll around the world in the shoes of some of our iReporters. We recently asked viewers to share their favorite one-minute walks. Take a look where they have taken us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm staying on a mountain with a group of people here to help the Haitians.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in Seoul, South Korea. We are trying to find some food.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a walk through the woods of my childhood home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Both my husband and his father grew up here. Just around the corner in front of his childhood home is the spot where we were engaged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That was soothing. A good walk usually does that.

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WHITFIELD: Sadly, it happens in schools across the country. Students taunted by fellow classmates. We visit one school determined to stop the cycle of bullying.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Outrage in Massachusetts after Phoebe Prince, a 15- year-old student, excited suicide. Her parents and friends say she had been bullied for months by classmates and no one did anything about it. There have been calls for the principal and the teachers who resign, even the school superintendent who is now pushing back.

Gus Sayer tells CNN the staff at South Hadley high school in Massachusetts only found out a week before she was a target of bullies before prince hanged herself.

So more than 40 states have some sort of law that makes bullying illegal. But what can school officials actually do to stop bullying on campus? A middle school in Maryland has been addressing the issue for two years now by offering anti-bullying classes for both faculty as well as the students.

CNN's Kate Bolduan has the details on this groundbreaking program.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bullying isn't a new problem facing our nation's schools, but the tragedy of a 15-year-old Massachusetts girl killing herself after allegedly being taunted for months has forced the problem back into the spotlight.

MEREDITH WELTY, TEACHER: What happened with Phoebe up in Massachusetts, it may have been in Massachusetts, but is it that far removed from what we go through all the time?

BOLDUAN: Students, parents, teachers left asking why, but also how, how can this be prevented in the future? That is a question the Urbana middle school in Maryland has been tackling for two by adding a research-based anti-bullying program to the curriculum.

WELTY: What it does is encourage kids to step up, take control of any situation that they might see, and really make them feel empowered to make a change in their lives, in their peers' lives.

BOLDUAN: The program involves ongoing training for faculty and administrators, but probably most importantly, weekly classes focused entirely on reducing bullying behavior. We sat in on one such class with eighth graders. WELTY: Talk about the cycle of bullying. Who is involved in the cycle of bullying?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's the people that don't think it's right, but they choose not to do anything. Then there's the people that just sit there and watch.

BRYSON ZACHARY, EIGHT GRADE STUDENT: I understand, like, how it feels to be, like, tormented by what other people say. And that feeling strikes true with a lot of people my age.

BOLDUAN: And 14-year-old Bryson Zachary says the classes have helped by keeping students' attention on respecting and standing up for one another.

BRYSON: It's really shown me to be a good human being that you need to respect people's values and who they are because everyone has -- they want to be successful and make it in life just as much as you do. So you shouldn't bring someone else down.

BOLDUAN: Teacher Meredith Welty says she is most worried about social media.

WELTY: You can sit behind a keyboard and not be responsible or held accountable. Not only are you bullying that person, you made the other 300 people who are friends on your Facebook also be witness to that bullying.

BOLDUAN: Welty sees the program helping at Urbana middle school, helping to change the school culture dealing with bullying. That is a lesson author Rosalind Wiseman says many more schools, households, and communities needs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every community is messy and vulnerable to these things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Kate Bolduan joining us live from Washington. Kate, if this is proven successful, why don't all schools have some type of bullying prevention program like this?

BOLDUAN: It's a really good question. You can be sure many schools have some type of awareness program, but something this comprehensive and this interactive that they put so much resource and energy into, we can't speak for every school district or every school, but you can imagine for many schools a big factor is funding, as it often is.

With the program this Maryland school has utilized and thousands of other schools have, these start-up costs can reach into the thousands of dollars. And with schools and communities so strapped for cash right now, Fredricka, you can imagine that can be a lot to ask.

But at least this school in Maryland we do know at least part of the funding for this program came from a grant. So that's a lot of help there. You really see they are putting a lot of energy into this.

WHITFIELD: The basic lesson being taught in these program is?

BOLDUAN: It's obvious. What they are teaching are obvious. Basic things. Clearly the message is not getting through to kids. And it's because they are doing it in an interactive and comprehensive way, and basically to say don't be a bully. If you see someone being bullied, help or reach out to an adult to alert them and don't stand by and just watch it happen.

But it's the way they are investing their teachers and their faculty and their students, this consistent conversation about it. They think that's really getting the message across.

WHITFIELD: It's heartbreaking knowing growing up is this challenging this hard. Not fair. Thanks so much, Kate Bolduan in Washington.