COEUR d'ALENE - Bullying and bad behavior weren't the only things Stephen Wessler found in Coeur d'Alene's public schools.

The hate crimes and discrimination prevention expert also found courage and empathy, two things that provide hope that the district's social ills can be turned around.

The Maine-based Wessler was asked to begin working with Coeur d'Alene middle and high school students last fall as part of the school district's anti-bullying efforts. He spent a week in Coeur d'Alene last October, holding focus groups to help him get to know the schools and get a feel for the local bullying issues.

He presented his findings to Coeur d'Alene School District Trustees Monday during their regular monthly meeting.

"What I found here was very similar to what I find elsewhere," Wessler said.

He said there are common themes of bias, prejudice, harassment and bullying across the U.S. and they are the same regardless of variations in socioeconomic status.

There are some issues more prevalent in each school system, he said, and Coeur d'Alene is no different.

"Clearly, gender is a problem," Wessler said.

The issue is seen locally, he said, in highly sexually degrading language used by boys to talk about girls and when speaking directly to them.

He said he also found evidence of another problem he's seen increasing over the years - "casual touching" or "casual sexual assault," instances of boys groping or slapping girls' butts or breasts.

The level of racially degrading language and jokes is high, he said, but not any higher than elsewhere. Like most places, he said most racially degrading jokes were about blacks.

"These are jokes that end up with punch lines about hanging," he said.

He was struck by the fact that the level of jokes about blacks is proportionately much higher than the population.

He also found a higher number of instances of jokes about religion, primarily Mormons and Jews.

Wessler said there is a great disconnect between the hurtful effect of these jokes and the intent of the students who tell them.

They're trying to fit in, to get laughs, he said.

The key is to help them become aware of the hurtful impact of their words and actions.

Wessler detailed how he is working with the students and teachers in the district, training them to use intervention strategies and coping skills. They will then train others.

He said he's hopeful that within a few years, the tide of hurtful language and behaviors will have turned. He said he's seen it happen in other places.

"What separates schools is whether they have the courage to try to find out what problems they have and then put in practice programs that are going to address those issues," Wessler said.

By that measure, Coeur d'Alene is a leader, Wessler said.

He said he found teachers and staff members who care deeply about making sure the school climate is one where the goal is to make every student feel safe and emotionally secure. That's not always the case, Wessler said. He visits school districts where the support for anti-bullying efforts are minimal.

The district is also unique in that the students trust their teachers, he said.

An observation Wessler found particularly striking was Coeur d'Alene students' high level of empathy.

"During focus groups, they're volunteering how much they dislike hearing degrading language," Wessler said. "Students are upset about how their classmates are being treated. It came up multiple times."

A graduate of Harvard College and Boston University of Law, Wessler went to work in the Maine attorney general's office in 1992 where he developed a civil rights unit that enforced the state's hate crimes statute.

In that work, he quickly realized that hate crimes are often committed by teenagers and sometimes even younger children.

Wessler's focus as a prosecutor became prevention, and he left the attorney general's office in 1999 to start the Center for Preventing Hate in Portland, Maine, and through that organization he worked with schools and other organizations throughout the nation.

He now consults on his own, often outside the U.S., still working with schools but also training police in places like the Balkans and Central Asia.

His efforts in Coeur d'Alene are being funded with $16,000 in grant funds from the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and Kootenai Electric.