Sunday afternoon in Mesquite, the Elks Lodge #2404 held its annual anti-bullying rally.
Amid the food, games and music was a serious message along with a line-up of photos of children who have committed suicide after being relentlessly bullied. Among them a photo of Ty Smalley whose father now travels the country trying to spread the anti-bullying word.
"Adults can tell kids to play nice and be good and it goes in one ear and out the other, but kids telling each other, they listen," said Kirk Smalley. "So our main message to these kids is I am somebody and so is everyone else."
Smalley is calling on kids to stand up for one another. If they see a peer being bulled, don’t ignore it. Intervene and make sure the bully knows they’re not cool.
"Bullied kids get to where they quit telling people they're being bullied because it makes the bullying worse, so if we can get kids standing up for each other, standing up in a group of their own friends and saying 'dude that ain't right' they listen," said Smalley.
Organizers say they're delivering anti-bullying literature to all teachers in the Mesquite Independent School District.
More: StandForTheSilent.org
