LOWELL | A best-selling author will share her story about surviving bullies with students, parents and teachers April 30 in the Tri-Creek schools.

Jodee Blanco, author of The New York Times best-seller "Please Stop Laughing at Me," will meet with Lowell Middle School students that morning thanks to the bullying prevention efforts of the Lowell Middle School BP Committee.

Her presentation is the culmination of a three-month, school-wide project where teachers have been reading Blanco's book to their students. "There have been many great student-generated discussions originating from this project," said Dr. Nathan Kleefisch, director of operations for the Tri-Creek School Corporation, in a letter to Tri-Creek staff members. "Middle school students will have the opportunity to bring their questions directly to the author on April 30."

In addition, arrangements have been made for Blanco to meet with Lowell High School students and Tri-Creek faculty and staff members in separate afternoon sessions, while parents and the public are invited to a program with the author from 7 to 8:30 p.m. April 30 in the Lowell High School Auditorium, 2051 E. Commercial Ave.

"Tri-Creek School Corporation has implemented a bullying prevention program in all elementary schools and the middle school. Currently, the Lowell High School Bullying Prevention (BP) Committee is preparing to bring the faculty and staff on board and will introduce the high school students to the program in the fall of the 2008-09 school year," said Kleefisch.

Blanco is one of the country's pre-eminent voices on the subject of school bullying, and "Please Stop Laughing At Me . . . One Woman's Inspirational Story" is a chronicle of her years as the student outcast. The book inspired a movement inside the nation's schools and is required reading in hundreds of middle and high schools and numerous universities in the U.S.

Her sequel, "Please Stop Laughing at Us . . . One Survivor's Extraordinary Quest to Prevent School Bullying" (BenBella Books, March 2008), was written in response to the demand for more information from her core audience - teens, teachers, parents and other adult survivors of peer abuse who have come to know Blanco as the champion of their cause. It provides advice and solutions set against the backdrop of her dramatic personal and professional journey as the survivor who unexpectedly finds herself the country's most sought-after anti-bullying activist.

Blanco, who lives in the suburbs of Chicago with her family, has successfully intervened in numerous bullying related attempted suicides and acts of student retaliation. She is a crisis management consultant and expert witness in the areas of school violence and peer abuse.

- The Times