Brody Ridder, 12, an American 7th grade student who lives in Westminster, Colorado, managed to spark an empathy movement at his school and get his peers to reflect on bullying, of which about 22% of students aged 12 to 12 years old. 18-year-olds from the country are targeted during the school year, according to government data.
Brody finished another school year alongside his class last month, but only two classmates and two teachers agreed to sign his yearbook. The fifth signature came from the young man himself, who wrote to himself: “I hope you make more friends.”
“They told me no,” Brody said in conversation with the American newspaper The Washington Post about the response of his classmates when he asked them to sign his book. “It made me sad.”
The young man’s mother, Cassandra, decided to share the episode in a parenting group on Facebook. The idea, she told the Post, was to make them aware of what was happening so that more kids weren’t exposed to bullying. “We tried to teach kindness to our family, and not seeing that from the students in his class was awful for me.”
Cassandra said that her son had already been reporting numerous episodes of bullying at this and the old school where he studied. She even communicated to the management of the place, but little has changed. Brody commented on the matter to local TV KDVR. “They irritate me to the point where I cry at lunch and have to leave early and it’s getting on my nerves,” he said, who also reported episodes of physical aggression.
That’s when the family received an answer they hadn’t expected. Several older students at the same institution heard Cassandra’s account through their parents, and decided to show support for Brody.
Some also reported being bullied when they were younger. Others, in turn, said they were there simply because they thought what happened to the young man was wrong.
Joanna Cooper, 17, a sophomore in high school, received the report through her mother. And then she commented, “I’ll call my friends and we’ll sign your yearbook; no child deserves to feel that way.”
She told the Post that, at Brody’s age, she also felt a lot of pressure to fit in with what her peers expected of her, and stated that yearbook subscriptions are not just a measure of popularity, but also and primarily a way of knowing you have. friends.
“Brody, I know we haven’t met, but I also know you’re the coolest kid. Whenever you need anything, you can call your older friends,” Cooper wrote.
The movement gained traction, and on May 25, the day after the school distributed yearbooks, dozens of older students flocked to Brody’s classroom ready to sign his book. “It made me feel better,” said the boy, who was also shy with the flurry of new classmates who came to him.
A 2019 survey by the US National Center for Education Statistics of students aged 12-18 showed that of the 22% who said they had been bullied, about 14% said they had been mocked and insulted. Another 6% said they were excluded from activities on purpose, and 5% reported being pushed or spat on.​
