(AP)Ninth-grader Michael Matisko took a stand against schoolyard bullying last month.

He signed a pillow.

"I think it's a pretty negative thing to do to anyone," says Michael, who put his name to one of the symbolic sleep cushions because, he says, he knows bullying happens in his school.

A group of Old Forge High School students stopped their peers in hallways and classrooms, asking them to sign pillows as a pledge to stand up against bullying.

The theme echoed one from a bullying-awareness video shown to students earlier this week: "For some kids, not being bullied is just a dream."

Old Forge was one of 220 schools worldwide to participate in the first International Stand Up To Bullying Day, says Bobby Cooper, director of Bully Help Initiatives Inc., which organized the event urging schools to educate students on the subject.

In Old Forge, the school's Peer Mediation Team, which has 19 students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades who were nominated by teachers to help their peers with problems, split up in their grades and vied to get the most signatures from other students.

The school has 455 students in grades seven through 12.

"Bullying is one of the main reasons we have a peer-mediation team. It is a problem. It happens a lot," says Jen Churla, one of the coordinators for the peer-mediation team.

She says many students, mostly in seventh and eighth grades, have come to the mediators because they were being bullied.

School officials say the bullying they've seen mostly involves name-calling.

"They come to us before it turns into a (bigger) problem," says Stephen Exeter, a senior peer mediator.

Most students approached by the mediators, who wore "We got your back" shirts, answered the plea to sign the pillows.

"Bullying is a widespread problem, but it's not a new problem. What is relatively new is the awareness it's receiving," says Dr. D'Arcy Lyness, a child psychologist and medical editor for KidsHealth.org.

It has become so widespread that many schools across the country have implemented bullying-awareness programs, she says.

Abington Heights Middle School, for instance, recently unveiled an anonymous bullying referral system that includes paper forms that can be dropped into "bully boxes" around the school and online forms that can be accessed through the middle school's Web site. The program was developed in response to the results of a bullying survey conducted two years ago, vice principal Michael Elia has says.

He says out of 1,155 students, 900 says they had witnessed bullying at some point but didn't know what to do about it.

Bullying can take on various forms, including intimidation, threats or teasing to the point where kids feel humiliated. It also can be physical.

"Bullying can affect kids' sense of safety ... and it can affect their self-esteem and confidence," Lyness says.

But there is a strength in implementing bullying-awareness programs, she says.

"Lots of kids experience bullying, a lot admit they have been bullies, but huge amounts of kids have witnessed bullying. All three groups have something important to learn and receive from these bullying-awareness programs," she says.

She says the awareness encourages kids to speak up or take up for a friend who is being bullied, and creates a community where children can feel safe.

More importantly, it targets the problem before bullying escalates into violent behavior, Lyness says.

Old Forge High School principal Michael Cole says this is the first year the school is really stressing the problem of bullying to prevent it from escalating into violent situations.

He believes that continuing to do awareness programs will pay off. And the anti-bullying message, he says, is better received coming from students' peers.

"I think the students have bought into the concept that we're not going to tolerate it," Cole says.

Jimmy Popple, a sophomore peer mediator, says the effort seemed to be well-received by students.

"They've all signed (the pillow) so far," he says. "Hopefully this will work. We're trying to raise awareness so they know we are here for them."