I’m 34 years old now, but that day during my freshman year of high school seems like yesterday.

All ninth graders who wanted to play freshman baseball at Jesuit High School were told to meet outside the athletic building after school for the beginning of tryouts.

There must have been 30 of us outside the building, and there was a little bit of a rivalry between the students who had attended the school in eighth grade and the new kids (like myself) who had just shown up for ninth grade.

A particular group of “veteran” ninth graders were intimidating some of the new kids in a bullying fashion. There were no teachers around, and those not involved in the confrontation acted as if nothing was happening.

I was one of those trying to ignore the scene. I had made friends with a few other “new” ninth graders and was congregated in a group, making us tougher targets for the bullies.

I was actually sitting on some steps with my back to the bullies when they zeroed in on a classmate sitting next to me. He had on a backpack and was yanked off the step by it. All I saw were his legs and feet fly out of my peripheral vision as the bullies snapped him up for torment.

Regrettably, I did nothing to help. Instead of trying to stop the act, I was simply relieved not to be the target of the bullying.

That’s the problem with bullying. It’s allowed to happen by the bystanders who sit around and do nothing as teenagers make their peers’ lives miserable.

I wasn’t strong enough 20 years ago to positively impact my school environment and didn’t gain that strength until I got to college.

Now, as the parent of a 5- and 7-year-old, it’s my mission to raise children who know how to prevent bullying in their schools.

It’s a task that can only be accomplished when students, teachers and administrators join together with parents and community members to foster a palpable atmosphere of inclusiveness that actively roots out bullying at its earliest signs.

Never is the spotlight for such a task shined brighter than October, which begins tomorrow and has been dubbed “National Bullying Prevention Month.”

Please take the time to check out a special “Bully Awareness” section in today’s newspaper, which includes first-person columns from four area teenagers, anti-bullying posters from local sixth graders and informational text on spotting warning signs of bullying in your own household.

If you’re lucky, you won’t have to experience the firsthand impacts of bullying. However, we can all play a hand in preventing others from going through such torment.

— Stephen Hemelt, publisher of L’OBSERVATEUR