Bullied kid writes "I hope you make some more friends" in his own yearbook. High schoolers step in

[Demovictory9]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/peopleandplaces/high-schoolers-step-in-after-classmates-won-t-colorado-6th-grader-s-yearbook/vi-AAXO0pB



High schoolers step in to help after 6th grader says no one signed his yearbookWESTMINSTER, Colo. (KDVR) — It is the time of year when kids are signing each other’s yearbooks. But what happens when no one wants to sign yours?

That happened to Brody Ridder, a sixth grader at The Academy of Charter Schools in Westminster.

“I went up to people and I asked them can you sign my yearbook and some of them were like no,” he said.

He collected two or three names from classmates and two notes from his teachers. Brody said it made him feel “useless,” especially after a tough school year due to bullying.

“They just annoy me to the point where I cry at lunch and I just have to leave early and it’s getting on my nerves and recently they started getting physical and I don’t like it,” he said.

---------------------

The soon-to-be seniors rounded up as many students as possible to sign Brody’s yearbook even though none of them had ever met the middle schooler.

“We walked in and we were like where’s Brody at? Is Brody Ridder in here? And they’re like yeah he’s in the back and we’re like Brody! We’re here to sign your yearbook bud,” Lightfoot said.

According to the teens, people were lining up to fill the void in Brody’s book. Some even played “rock, paper, scissors” to see who could sign first.

https://kdvr.com/news/high-schoolers-step-in-to-help-after-6th-grader-says-no-one-signed-his-yearbook/

[Tickle]

1. Thanks for posting this

maybe there is hope after all

[Novara]

2. I needed to see this story this morning, thank you.

It made me cry but this time for the right reasons.

[hlthe2b]

3. Oh my...

and

[Maru Kitteh]

26. Yup. Me too. Nt

[betsuni]

4. I wasn't going to get my senior yearbook because had nobody to sign it but

decided to get one anyway, took it to my ballet school where I had friends who went to other schools and didn't know what a loser I was. I told them there weren't any signatures in it because I'd just picked it up that day, not true, because loser.

[Joinfortmill]

6. Very happy you were able to get signatures and that you had your own tribe.

[2Gingersnaps]

7. I remember being on the outside looking in, and not being terribly impressed.

And shock and surprise, today they are a bunch of trumphumpers. Entitled, shallow, vapid, and mean spirited. My sister is a bullshit artist and got along quite well, she still keeps up with the crowd on FB, I haven't missed anything in 40 years.

[betsuni]

43. One good thing about being on the outside is that you can observe people and

think about them, you get used to thinking because you have a lot of time when you're not inside.

I'm sure most of the people from my hometown are Trumpers because they all loved Reagan, that election happened soon after I graduated from high school. All I heard was that he was going to cut taxes as if this was the most important and only thing to consider. And these Christian evangelicals, huge big Christians, religion was their whole lives -- they HATED Carter. I thought, but ... um, you have a genuine born-again Christian who's the epitome of a Christian, and you love Ronald Reagan instead?

[2Gingersnaps]

49. That always made me want to laugh and cry at the same time,

what exactly made Reagan such a paragon of "faith?" Turning in his fellow actors to the House UnAmerican Committee as a union steward? Firing striking Air Traffic Controllers? Trickle Down economics? Iran/Contra? "Just Say No" to drugs while trafficking them in the inner cities? Partnering with Rupert Murdoch to bullshit the American public while he carried out the dirty wars in South America? Shutting down mental health facilities and throwing the patients into the streets so the weak and helpless could be fed on, and the disturbed and violent would end up in the prison system?

Jimmy Carter, still helping build homes for Habitat For Humanity at his age. Turning his farmland into a solar farm that supplies half the energy needs to his hometown. Still teaching Sunday school at the same church he has taught at most of his life.

And so called "evangelicals" calling the inevitable conclusion to Reagan, an illiterate debauched criminal the second coming of Jesus.

[Wednesdays]

35. You are not, nor were you ever were, a loser. eom

[sheshe2]

39. You are not!

[betsuni]

44. On the other hand, almost everyone Trump calls losers are terrific, so... Time to take back "loser."

Last edited Sun May 29, 2022, 02:15 AM - Edit history (1)

Six months since we moved to the husband's hometown, still frustrated with myself for being weird and shy. Easy to be anonymous in the city but now everyone knows who I am, I really stick out, neighbors and relatives drop in anytime. I need a body double who can be chatty and pleasant and actually socialize! I'm trying not to be so hard on myself, concentrating on thinking "eccentric" instead of weirdo.

One good thing, the relatives used to ask me all the time if I was lonely without family and friends from my own country. They don't anymore because it finally sunk in. No.

[Joinfortmill]

5. I'm the mother of a Guidance Counselor, who is a warm, wonderful person...

But, I think the schools have it wrong in how they handle bullying. Very happy for this little boy. And take the names of the high school students who came to sign his yearbook because they are the best of the best and will help to make our world a better place.

[crim son]

8. Both my sons were bullied in school.

At one point it got so bad that a bunch of little jerks pulled my oldest son's pants down in front of a crowd. This was reported and there was a school-wide meeting where the administration spoke to the kids about bullying and its effects, yada yada yada. Nobody was punished and the bullying went on. It wasn't until my gentle son (we called him Buddha Boy) punched one of the kids, that the bullying stopped, and it stopped completely. My youngest had the same experience but it happened every day as he walked home from school. After months of it, my husband drove over to watch him leave at the end of the day and sure enough, another kid came up behind him and pushed him face down into a snowbank, then walked on as if nothing had happened. My then-husband couldn't believe what he was seeing and leapt out of the car and chased the kid down. Not saying this was a great idea, but not only did the bullying stop, but the kid in question apologized to my son.

Both my sons went on to get engineering degrees and they are both extremely successful young men. What happened to the bullies... I don't know. I hope they fared as well.

[Joinfortmill]

20. I completely get this...

I was bullied on the way home from school when I was in grammar school. Every day for two weeks, this girl (I still remember her name) would taunt me and she had a growing group of followers walking behind her. I finally told my mother who said, "Turn around and hit her in the boob". I don't recall that I did that, but we did get into it. After that she disappeared into her hole somewhere. I think bullying is about jealousy and resentment. I've had a fairly successful life, as for the girl who bullied me, I seriously doubt she amounted to much. You must be very proud of your sons.

[crim son]

22. I am so very sorry you had to endure that!

You did the right thing! I was also bullied, at one point, in middle school, being pushed from boy to boy amid chants of "carpenter's dream," as I was and still am, flat chested. That was the worst incident; there were others and like you, I survived. WE ROCK!

Yes, I am very proud of my boys! I am also fortunate that they were willing to share with me at the time, what they were going through, so I could provide emotional support. I think not all kids feel it is safe to share this sort of thing with their parents and it hurts me to know it.

[Tree Lady]

27. I was bullied in junior high

These group of tough girls thought I told on them when I asked teacher how much longer I had to run track, they were hiding behind tree. She told me tell those girls to run. I always did what authority told me so I did and for next two years were clipped, tripped, pushed, threatened, called names like tattletale. No one would believe I didn't.

I was scared to go to school, anywhere. Once they followed me all over Woolworths store teasing, clipping, pushing. I went to cashier and used their phone to call my mom for ride home.

Parents did nothing, school did nothing. Luckily they stopped in high school.

This was in the 60's before computers sometimes I think maybe I could have found someone to help me. All I know is I grew up fearful and with low self esteem.

It's taken me many years to get over it. I have no answer but happy it's at least being talked about now and trying to work on.

[Demovictory9]

28. I had a bully for a short time. A much larger girl started pushing and hitting me. One day without

thinking, I swung wildly at her and missed. The bully looked at me with surprise and never bothered me again.

the teacher only saw me swing and not the prior bullying and said sadly "Democratvictory, please don't do that".. sigh...


Key and Peele famous skit about bullies

[betsuni]

50. Key & Peele are fabulous!

I love them.

[OrangeJoe]

47. My wife story

My wife's mother was Japanese. Growing up as an Army brat she lived in a number of places. She tells the story when they lived in Missouri at age 7 there was an older boy who used to bully her. One time on the playground he made the mistake of doing "slant eyes" with his fingers directly in front of her. She socked him in the stomach, doubling him over and making him cry. The duty teacher witnessed the whole thing, took her aside and said "Good for you." The little jerk never bothered her again.

[Deminpenn]

9. No signatures either,

but life went on and turned out a-ok.

[Demovictory9]

32. so sorry you had that experience

[Deminpenn]

38. Don't be

Things turned out well, almost exactly as planned. At one night-before-the-reunion casual gathering at a local watering hole, talked to a classmate who had been one of the in crowd. She married the guy who got her pregnant in school who ultimately wasn't a good spouse, then died of liver disease in his mid-50s ending a bad marriage. She sure looked like someone who'd been through a lot. The irony of her life vs mine wasn't lost on me.

[Roland99]

10. Wait. Bullied at a charter school? I thought republicans said charter schools were a utopia?

[c-rational]

48. +1, my thought also.

[llmart]

11. This makes me sad and happy at the same time.

I don't know which one I feel the most, but I'm thinking it's the "sad" part that this stuff is allowed to go on without any adult intervening.

By the way, how is Malaria's anti-bullying project coming along? I hear she spent years and hours working on this.

Do I even need the sarcasm emoji???

[crim son]

23. Not here on DU, you don't! n/t

[Demovictory9]

30. Be Best!

[llmart]

37. What a worthless imbecile she is.

I am so grateful every single day that we have the classy President and Doctor Jill Biden as our first family. It is comforting to know the majority of people chose class over crass.

[Emile]

12. This should never had to happen. Glad the older kids stood up.

[FM123]

13. Thank you for sharing this.

This story brings both tears to my eyes and warmth to my heart.

[lostnfound]

14. Further evidence that this new generation has a very special spirit about it

The empathy and tendency to work together is really encouraging.

[ancianita]

41. Yes it is, and their spirit raises my spirit.

But first...

[Ziggysmom]

15. Unfortunately kids mirror their parents. They learn that mean streak at home! Bullying kids

often have parents that are Karen types. My daughter was involved in orchestra and band for many years and we travelled a lot with other parents to competitions. I loved the experiences with the talented children, but had my fill of A-hole parents.

[Demovictory9]

29. Key and Peele famous skit about bullies

Key and Peele famous skit about bullies

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. Thank you for posting this

[DFW]

19. I never even knew kids signed each other's yearbooks.

I don't even remember if ours arrived before or after graduation. Due to my time living in Spain, and the fact that I was a non-elite outsider and a one-year senior at the high school from which I graduated, I entered the school with no friends, and left with precious few. After the first "social event," the girls school next door, with whom it it was held, told our class newspaper that we (my class) were all "freaks, jocks and zeroes." The class paper chose to post my photo with the article to emphasize the point.

Needless to say, subsequent requests for alumni contributions fell on deaf ears. Most of my classmates thought I was some kind of pre-hippie weirdo, and I wasn't thrilled with most of them, either. Practically the only ones not completely full of themselves were the ten or so black guys brought in from ghettos around the country, so the school could show how "open-minded" it was (it still wasn't). I ate at their table every night, since they knew another "don't-fit-in" when they saw one, and welcomed me. I ended up rooming with two of them in college, so we could all three be sure we didn't end up rooming with the kind of guys we had encountered that last year at boarding school.

Almost 30 years later, I happened to be at a dinner with the new headmistress (boys and girls schools had since merged). Seeing and meeting my very obviously attractive and smart 14 year old bi-lingual daughter, she remarked what a great student she would make at the school, and how it it had SO changed since I was there. But my experience at age 17 had left very deep scars. As I wasn't a freak or a jock, I was obviously a zero, and the school, at the time, was obviously cool with humiliating me as such publicly. In return, my alumni contributions matched their assessment. For a school whose motto was the Latin "non sibi (selflessness)," it sure produced a lot of privileged, selfish assholes. I'm sure that a few of the guys in my class did NOT turn out like that. I just never knew them, that's all.

My daughter DID end up going to a boarding school in the USA a couple of years later, but at a school that was as far from eastern Massachusetts as you could physically get, and still be on the territory of one of the fifty states. She has been wildly successful, earned every penny she has on her own, and is generous to a fault, so you can tell she never went anywhere near my "non sibi" school, or anyone who went there for more than a year.

Some scars don't heal. I hope Brody Ridder does better with his than I did with mine.

[Demovictory9]

31. that's why so many blank pages in the back... for signing. sorry you had that experience

[DFW]

33. I never even knew I was missing something.

I never looked in the back. I don't think I've even looked at the book in 40 years. I'm not even sure I know where it is.

That school is now over 50 years in my past. I don't even know if colleges think it's a prime recruiting place any more, although I suppose it is. Maybe it still enjoys some name recognition from times gone by. The Bushes probably pump it up with some photo op visits or money or both. I wouldn't know. Of the next generation, i.e. my daughters and my brother's sons, only one (my younger daughter) went to an American boarding school for high school, and being on the Big Island of Hawai'i, it wasn't like any other I had ever seen or visited, anyway. She was only there for the last two years, but made friends for life. We saw some of them when we were on the Big Island last month, and she plans to go back next year for her 20th high school class reunion. I haven't been back to Andover for ANY class reunion. As a tiny revenge for the miserable year I spent there, when it came time for the class picture, my brother, who was not a student there, got herded in next to me, and couldn't scramble out before we were told to sit still for the official class photo. So, somewhere in the hallowed halls of that venerated old school, hangs an official photo of the class on 1970 which includes my brother, who never went there. I got word to them eventually, but they cared so goddam little about us, I bet that there is STILL no one alive (besides my brother and myself) who would be able to point out who the ringer was. They were certainly a LOT more upset about it than I was. Good!

They still hit on me for contributions, and I still remind them of their "zero" sum game.

And anyway, if they think I'm going to favor Andover over Beto, Planned Parenthood, Raphael Warnock, NARAL, or Mark Kelly, they never bothered to get to know me in the first place.

[LuckyLib]

46. Yearbooks then were a poor attempt to solidify community

where there was practically none. It was a reflection of the existing culture—they had bad photos of the same people in their club and sports worshiping regalia, a celebration of traditions that were already stale. In today’s US, there should be no signing — you run the risk of the kind that is cruel and vitriolic, that many young people engage in on social media.

[LymphocyteLover]

21. I wasn't bullied but the yearbook signing thing was always traumatic for me

I was shy and didn't have that many friends and always felt insecure to see others get so many signatures.

[Doc Sportello]

24. Threads like this are one of the reasons I like DU

Empathy. Unfortunately it's almost all on one side of the political and cultural spectrum. I'm 68 so this push for empathy and inclusion for those who are considered different in America is more recent for me, but when you read the responses here, you see how it is a good thing for our society. People suffer these emotional wounds for years, if not a lifetime. Likewise, you see those who were in the "popular" crowd carry that mantle like a source of pride throughout their lives and as a result often are pretty pathetic, shallow adults. So glad that some young people today reach out like these high school kids did to this young man.

[magicarpet]

25. This type of stuff is habitually and relentlessly posted here on Democratic Underground.

God Bless the people who post here and frequent the place.

Compassion is the glue that holds our society together.

Carry on....... we will prevail....

[GoodRaisin]

34. +1

[Faux pas]

36. Kickin'

[sheshe2]

40. That made me cry and smile at the same time.

Thank you so much for posting what these kids did for Brody.

A small amount of kindness goes a long way.

[BigmanPigman]

42. My first year teaching was my 6th grade class.

A new student at the school was in my Gifted class of 6th graders. She was beautiful, talented, smart, happy and the "cool" kids harassed her for it. Since I was always was working I never had time for lunch and ate at my desk. One day at lunch this student came in and asked me why she had to live. I was afraid she was going to kill herself. I was so upset that weekend that I called my master teacher and other experienced teachers and my principal at their homes for advice.

I ended up writing a 5 min speech and kept half the class in at recess on Monday (the cool kids who had been bullying her). I gave them my speech and half of them were in tears from guilt when I was done. At parent conference time parents of the cool kids thanked me since their children had been telling their families about this girl and the parents were tired of hearing them go on and on at the dinner table. I don't know why they didn't or weren't successful in stopping their kids from bullying but it never happened in my class again. In fact, the cool kids started to go against each other instead of the new girl. It is not easy out there but I had a chance to do something. That student wrote a book of poetry and dedicated it to two people and I was one of them.

Kids are so cruel at that age. When I went down to teach 1st grade for 15 years I never had this problem. The little kids LOVE new kids and actually fight each other over whose turn it is to get the chance to show the new kid around the school, etc. If someone looked or acted differently or didn't have a snack the class were kind and helpful. If a student didn't speak English they all wanted to sit next to him/her. The little ones are not into peer pressure and they love helping one another. What a difference 5 years makes.

[Texaswitchy]

45. I have no idea where my year books are.

Only bought two of them.

Never bothered with the senior one.

I didn't go to the high school I wanted to.

We were all rezoned.

Everyone was pissed off.

I glad the little boy got his year book signed.

That was a nice act.

[Rhiannon12866]

51. Very nice.

And I never got one after I graduated from college since they generally handed them out the following year.