Ralston High School took a proactive step toward bullying and other teen concerns Wednesday with a message from an Omaha author who's been there, done that and written about it.

Labels aren't so flattering sometimes and that's one of the key points speakers talked about with Ralston students. Words along with bad choices often have consequences.

"I know even some kids in school are drinking while they're in school and some kids get caught smoking," says Ralston senior Kristin Kloppenburg.

It's what they've seen and what they've done in school, including bullying other kids. "Just kids who, you know, don't do so well in school or if they don't do sports or something more along those lines," says junior Josh Noble.

Someone else who admits he's been a bully is Omaha author Mike Donahue and he wants the teens at Ralston High to learn from his mistakes. Donahue has written “Reinventing My Normal," about developing a skill to survive and reinvent your normal when normal is taken away.

"Words matter,” says Donahue. “What we say to each other matters." It's all about choices, he says and he wants them to make good ones by saying no to alcohol, tobacco and drugs for starters. "It's the right thing to do."

He urged the group to try walking in someone else's shoes before saying something they may regret. “Kids get marginalized, made to feel stupid. We don't know their life. We don't follow them home. We don't know their world." The teenaged world, he says, is more complex than ever.

The talk was particularly timely with the recent threats of violence at Westside High School, threats that resonated with students across the metro.

"What makes them think that it's okay to go around saying, oh, we're gonna blow up the school?” says Kristin. “Come on, all these people just want an education."

"Kind of makes you wonder, like, is it gonna happen at your school?" adds Josh. "You don't really know."

With the pressures facing high school students, guidance counselors say students shouldn't bottle things up.

"They've got to (understand) that it's alright to talk about these things if something's bothering you,” says Ralston High School guidance counselor Joe Kilzer. “Find a friend to talk to, find a teacher, find a guidance counselor."

In other words, get to the root of the problem before it escalates.