"When we have sessions about knowing me before you judge me, you get quite different perspectives about why it's happening and understanding each other's diversity," she says.
"A lot of people, boys even, have been in tears at the stories that have come out. At that time, what you may have thought about someone changes."
Later sessions on weekday evenings look at staying mentally healthy, accepting your body image and building up resilience in the face of challenges.
"I believe that as a community everyone has to accept responsibility [for bullying]," she says.
"If adults acknowledge the fact that it's serious and teach their kids the values and virtues of it's not okay to belittle anybody, and it's not okay to hurt anybody, then it's no good hitting your child and telling them, 'Don't go to school and do this!'."
New Zealand removed one legal inconsistency in 2007 when it stopped exempting parents from the assault laws for physical punishment of their children.
But Auckland University psychologist Ian Lambie says many parents still use too much "verbal punishment", making children think they are bad or useless.
"A child should get four positive reinforcements to every negative one," he says. "Kids learn best by reinforcement, as opposed to punishment."
Kim Workman, a former head of the Prison Service who now lobbies for penal reform, says our justice system is one of the most punitive in the world.
"At the end of the day, justice is about right relationships and how we treat one another," he says.
"If we have a justice system that is about punishing perceived evil and pursuing people for the purpose of retribution and revenge, then all we are going to do is perpetuate bullying."
