Ask Hugh B. Bain Middle School Principal Tom Barbieri what the three most important words are in life and he'll tell you: respect, respect, respect.

Last week, Bain Middle School's seventh- and eighth-grade students, facilitated by social worker and Project Respect advisor Sheri Brown, brought the message of respect to the Cranston Public Schools' entire third- and fourth-grade population.

In a series of four shows in front of approximately 400 students each time, the students performed songs, skits, puppet shows, cheers, dances and more, teaching students the importance of respect.

The goal of Project Respect is to recognize, report and reduce the threat of bullying in the schools and take a stand against bullying. The message of the show was anti-bullying but, as Barbieri stated to all of the guests in the auditorium before one of the shows, it all begins with respect.

"We value the word respect [at Bain]," Barbieri said. "It's the first thing I teach anybody in this school. We respect this auditorium, we respect our rules here. You walk in silence into this auditorium. When you're here, you listen."

Brown brought Project Respect to Bain in 2001, modifying it from a high school program for the middle grades. The program started that first year with a dozen students and has since increased to 55 seventh- and eighth-graders this year.

Students who wish to be part of the program need to fill out an application form. They need to get teacher signatures and write an essay stating why they wish to be part of the program.

The students in the program meet for two hours every week after school, have special T-shirts and each year they try to do something big to help spread their message. They are looked upon as the role models and leaders of the school.

So what is Project Respect?

"Project Respect is a peer education program, which stresses the importance of practicing the golden rule, 'Treat others as you would like to be treated,'" says the program guide for the performance. "Students involved in the program at Bain take an active approach to educate and engage their fellow classmates in year round 'respect activities' as a way to decrease problems such as bullying, name calling, teasing, fighting and harassing."

"We try to be pro-active," Brown said. "Initially we presented within our school and to our feeder schools [the elementary schools whose students will attend Bain]. Now, we're taking on a whole new animal."

Bain Middle School is on the forefront of the anti-bullying initiative, according to Barbieri.

"Bain is the center of what respect is," Barbieri said. "We've had presentations with the family court system, we have had speakers come and speak to parents, teachers and students at night about cyber bullying, MySpace, etc. It's not just one presentation we're doing. It's part of a big, over-arching of all ways to show respect."

Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch is a supporter of the "Third Eye" program, whose purpose is to make students the third eye, identifying problems such as crime, violence, drug use and bullying, and coming up with solutions. Bain Middle School has been part of that program. The program sends out a positive message about making good choices and saying no to bullying; it teaches conflict resolution skills, mentoring and peer-to-peer teaching.

Brown said when coming up with the show's format she gave the students a loose framework to follow.

"Give them something and they take it and run with it," she said. "I wrote the wording - they added their skills and talents."

As the students filed into the auditorium, Aretha Franklin's song, "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" played over the speakers, instantly setting the tone for the morning.

"My job is to get the students excited for the show," said eighth-grader Franklin Ceballos. "I make up all of the raps."

Ceballos and fellow eighth-grader Sergio Correia had starring roles in the show's puppet show and in the pep rally portion of the show. Correia used his beat boxing talents to enhance the performance. Their enthusiasm was contagious and the students in the audience were excited, entertained and engaged.

Helen Le, an eighth-grade student who is participating in the Project Respect program for the first time this year, said she is enjoying it so far. In the performance she played one of the main characters in a skit about bullying.

"A boy didn't do his homework, and Helen did hers," explained eighth-grader Alexandra Kerfoot. "They are trying to copy off Helen but they can't because bystanders stop him. The message is, don't bully people for their work."

Project Respect presents facts about bullying in its program, taken from the National Education Association in 2003: Bullying creates a climate of fear and disrespect in schools and has a negative impact on students' learning. Nationwide, 160,000 kids miss school every day just to escape being bullied. Bullying has been identified as a major concern by schools across the United States.

Bullying hurts. It is aggressive behavior that is intentional and involves an imbalance of power and strength. Cyber bullying, the use of technology to humiliate, threaten or intimidate, is the fastest-growing trend.

Throughout the performance, the message was clear: bullying isn't cool. The definitions of a bully, someone who targets and teases another; a victim, the person who is targeted and teased; and a bystander, those who witness bullying and help to stop it; were constantly repeated and acted out in a variety of different ways.

During the puppet show portion of the program, two friends speak about how to stop a bully. One of the main characters gives important advice to the other, "Here's what you need to do. You need to stand up straight, shoulders back, head up. Stand tall, head high, look him straight in the eye."

At the end of the program all students were asked to repeat the Anti-Bullying Pledge, which may have originated from the Web site www.bullying.org, reformatted by Brown to include the three Rs: recognize, report, reduce.

"We, the students of Cranston Public Schools, pledge to lend a hand by helping all students who are being bullied, including all students who may be excluded or left out, and by reporting all bullying incidents we know about or see."

Reporting bullying is an important piece of the process; Brown noted that, initially, the number of reports of bullying in the school went up as word got out to report any bullying they witnessed. Now, there is a reduction in bullying incidents at Bain and kids are getting classmates to change their behavior.

Lynn Holt's third-grade class from Daniel D. Waterman School thoroughly enjoyed the performance.

"It was awesome," third-grader Brooke Gannon said. "I learned to walk away from a bully. My favorite part was the puppet show."

"If you constantly talk to kids, you'll get the message across," Barbieri said. "The foundation of it all is respect. If they respect each other, the rest will happen."