ANTIGO - Governor Jim Doyle signed a new law last week which requires school districts to adopt a bullying policy by August 15th.

But the Antigo School District is one step ahead of the new law.

They put a plan and an anti-bullying program in place almost two years ago.

Katelyn Kondzela is a Safe School Ambassador.

She tells Newswatch 12, "We're taught to look for people who get made fun of and things people are doing wrong."

It's the anti-bullying program at Antigo Middle and High School.

Safe School Ambassador Advisor Leigh Brown says, "You can't stop bullying until you start recognizing it, and that's one of the big programs of SSA, is just the recognition of it. If you turn a blind eye, you can't stop it."

She says students like Katelyn are trained to be the eyes and ears to help stop bullying.

Katelyn says, "We just walk over there to say something to distract them and then if it doesn't stop, then we tell a teacher."

Brown adds, "If a girl is snickering, just a 'Hey, she's fun. I like her.' and then they'll usually stop because the bully doesn't want to look uncool to their friend."

Katelyn says as a student ambassador, she's intervened to stop bullying. But it's not always easy.

"It makes me feel good, but it's also nerve wrecking at the time because you don't know what's going to happen."

Even so, Katelyn would like to see more done.

She tells Newswatch 12, "They need to get speeches or something, they need to understand that bad things happen to kids when they get bullied."

This is just part one of a two-part series.

Thursday night we'll see the results of the Safe School Ambassador program and see how they're going to expand their program to help more people.