State first lady leading bullying awareness week

BALTIMORE - Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley, Maryland's first lady and a Baltimore District judge, is kicking off a week of events aimed at preventing bullying in schools and communities.

She will appear with Nancy Grasmick, the state schools superintendent, at Lakeland Elementary School in Baltimore on Monday.

Judge O'Malley will be joined by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown to visit an anti-bullying program Wednesday at Central Middle School in Edgewater.

Gov. Martin O'Malley will accompany her on a visit to Urbana Middle School in Frederick County on Thursday to talk about well-regarded program against bullying.

The O'Malley administration says there were a total of 3,318 incidents of bullying reported during the 2009-2010 school year in Maryland. The administration says that's an increase of 2,132 reported incidents over the previous year.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)