County students learn how not to bully

By ALICE WADLEY staff writer

Canyon View Junior High welcomed motivational speaker Josh Drean on Sept. 19. Drean has a positive antibullying approach to his speaking, which he draws from his life experiences. Drean grew up in Utah and is currently residing in Boston, while attending Harvard University.
Drean said, he started beatboxing in the seventh grade. I had a friend, Matt who was a really good beatboxer. Matt was bullied because he had an unusually large chest. I even teased him and thought it was all in fun.
Then one day when we were sitting in the cafeteria I apologized to him. He said don’t worry about it and proceeded to tell me he had been working on his beatboxing using animal sounds.
My friend taught me, who you are is not defined by who is around you. Who you are is who you chose to be. If you focus on the negative things, things are always going to be negative.
Focus on the positive. Matt found something, which was beatboxing. What’s your because? Once you find that thing go with it.
I really love dressing up as a cat. I used to be Cosmo the Cougar, the BYU mascot. A mascot has one job. That is to represent. It’s all about what we represent. There are more important things than having fun. What do you represent? It’s about something bigger than us.
There are three guidelines to being a good mascot. 1. Keep your head on. 2. Know your audience. 3. Be a hero. The first one is to keep your head on as a mascot you have kids who are always trying to pull your head off. I once got hit with a beer bottle. I was really mad and I had to keep my cool. I told a police officer and he handled the situation. There are times when I got mad and frustrated. I can’t act on my emotions because I represent my school, friends and family. We have two choices. We can give up or we can learn from it. You can chose how you respond to it. Thrive under your circumstances. It’s a chance to learn and grow. Learn resiliency. I was made fun of because I was learning to play the harmonica. Find what you like and do it. Find you!
The second thing to being a good mascot is know your audience. I have a younger brother who was a cheerleader. We all have stereotypes in our minds. We have preconceived ideas.
There was a group of students who would make fun of my brother. They teased him all the time, even online. He didn’t want to go to school. We were both students at BYU.
He was going to quit cheerleading and I asked him why. He said he was tired of being made fun of. I asked him to tryout and he said he would try out if I did. I didn’t know anything about cheerleading.
I tried out and I was the worse cheerleader at the tryouts. When I looked at the list of who made the cheer squad my brother’s name was on the list. My name was on the list as well. I wondered why. I didn’t have the skills to be a cheerleader.
The cheer instructor saw something in me that I didn’t. She taught me the number one job of a cheerleader is to represent.
I learned empathy. Even in college people make fun of you. I got to experience what my brother was going through before. Before you say something negative think about what that person is going through.
The third part of being a good mascot is to be a hero. After my first year of cheer someone said why don’t you tryout to be a mascot. There is only one mascot in your school. It’s a big deal. You have to represent and be a hero. ESPN Game Day was at BYU doing a show. I decided I was going to do something wild on the show.
I decided I was going to write the other teams name on a piece of paper and rip it up live on national television.
When the time came I did just that. It not only got national media attention it got the attention of ESPN security and the director of the show. The director of the show spoke to me. She told me the job of the mascot is to represent. I was in real trouble. ESPN even suggested I be expelled from school. I was called into a room with all of the important people of BYU.
They were ready to kick me out of school. The mascot instructor spoke to the board at BYU and asked them to give me a second chance.
I made a really bad decision. We all make good and bad decisions. We can think of them as a positive thing or a negative thing. I was suspended from being the mascot until I learned what it was to be a mascot.
I got in trouble because I was being selfish. I thought I was being a hero, but I wasn’t. After a week or so the board decided to give me a second chance. I once again learned the role of the mascot is to represent.
If you see someone getting bullied stand up for them. Go to the bully and say you saw what he/she did and you don’t like it.
Ask them to stop. Statistics show 65 percent of bullies will stop if you confront them and ask them to stop. If you see an unsafe situation talk about it with someone. If you see someone getting bullied go to them, tell them you are sorry they are being bullied.
Give people a second voice. You may save some ones life.
We have learned about being a good mascot. The first thing we learned is to keep your head on-Resilience.
The second thing we learned is to know your audience-Empathy. The third thing we learned is be a hero-Potential. Resilience, Empathy, Potential (REP) this is an abbreviation I want you to remember. Always represent.