( CNN ) -- As a mother , you send your children off to their first day of kindergarten with pride , anticipation and excitement . But a part of you ca n't shake those nagging questions : Will they make friends ? Have someone to play with at recess ? Be bullied ? As director of PACER 's National Center for Bullying Prevention , and the mother of a child with Down syndrome , those questions do n't just go away with time . And that worry only intensifies . My 14-year-old son , David , was born with Down syndrome . Before he turned 3 , he had undergone three open heart surgeries and a tracheotomy , and his breathing required a ventilator . Heading into kindergarten , David was nonverbal , had delayed cognitive abilities and received his nutrition from a feeding tube . There was no doubt about it : My son was n't like his peers . Because of his differences -- and research showing children tend to single out peers with characteristics like his -- I feared that David could become a poster child for children expected to be the targets of bullying . We live in a small community , where David has known all of his classmates since kindergarten and will eventually graduate high school with most of them . They have the same classes , eat lunch at the same time and attend field trips together . For all of these reasons , I decided the best way to address my concerns about David would be to become his advocate -- not only with adults , but with his peers . During his first year of school , I started visiting David 's classroom to talk with his classmates about Down syndrome . I discovered that most children were n't concerned about his cognitive issues ; they were actually more fascinated with why he did n't talk . At this time , I also networked with his teachers , his paraprofessionals and even made sure the lunchroom workers knew me . I hoped the more these people felt comfortable with me , the more information they would share . Now , years later , David has just started the eighth grade . He 's not bullied , and more than that , he loves school . It 's the place where his peers give him high fives in the hallway , ask him to sit by them at lunch and -- best of all -- genuinely accept him . I have been David 's advocate , but I ca n't take all , or even most , of the credit for David 's acclimating so well to school . That credit belongs to his teachers , school staff and classmates , particularly a group of students who received training in sixth grade on how to prevent bullying and speak out on David 's behalf . We call them his peer advocates , and if they see bullying , they intervene , ask the bully to stop or report the situation to an adult . The concept sounds simple , but because my son ca n't tell me what happens during the day , I depend heavily on these peers to act as his voice . Now , what started as four kids in sixth grade has evolved to a schoolwide project with more than 40 students volunteering to become peer advocates so they can help David and other students who are different . I know all too well that not every parent of a child with a disability has this good fortune . Although I 've found that power comes from sharing and being direct , I realize this approach wo n't work in every classroom where bullying exists . But there are always ways that parents , teachers and students can develop strategies and begin to teach young people the importance of inclusion , acceptance and -- most important -- respect . The act of bullying hurts not only the children involved , but the entire community . That 's why PACER Center has organized National Bullying Prevention Month in October , a time for communities nationwide to unite and promote bullying prevention through creative resources designed to engage , educate and inspire . Ignoring the problem is not the answer . Instead , our communities can take steps to raise awareness of bullying and start teaching young people that the end of bullying really does begin with them . Bullying has affected too many for too long . But there is hope . Hope for the teachers who want bullying to end . Hope for the students too afraid to go to school . And hope for the mothers and fathers of children with disabilities -- that one day , they will drop off their children on the first day of kindergarten without having to worry about whether they will be bullied . Instead , they can expect their children will be included and respected by their peers for everything they are . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julie Hertzog .
National Center for Bullying Prevention 's Julie Hertzog feared for Down syndrome son . David was n't bullied because Hertzog was proactive , teaching kids , working with teachers . Students were trained to be peer advocates , she says , to intervene in bullying situations . But when the school year started again this past September, it seemed like a different story.