The Bordas & Bordas law firm recently presented checks to the 15 high school seniors who were nominated by their teachers, friends and peers for the Anti-Bullying Award. This is the second year that we’ve recognized those students attending the 15 local high schools in Ohio and Marshall Counties in West Virginia and in Belmont County, Ohio. The award is based on a number of criteria. The recipients treat everyone equally; respect differences in others; stand up for those who are targeted by others or who are discriminated against; and speak out against injustice.
In meeting with many of the award recipients here in our Wheeling office this week and after providing each winner with a $500 check, we also presented each of them with four Pirates tickets, which will enable them and their friends or family to go see a game in the Bordas & Bordas suite at PNC Park.
While talking to the kids and their parents, I became keenly aware that in many cases the young men and women who are the recipients of this award are also leaders in the classroom and in sports. The winners were not quite those I had hoped the award would go to, but in reflection, it makes sense. It has always seemed to me that in order to combat bullying, for the most part, the people who are able to most successfully become involved in putting a stop to the abuse are leaders. They are leaders through academics and through sports. It makes sense because in many cases, these leaders are some of the most popular kids in school themselves, and they are able to influence other students to do the right thing. Certainly, if you’ve got an athlete who also happens to be a fairly tough athlete and self-confident individual, he or she might not be afraid to stand up in the face of bullies for fear of being attacked and hurt or abused either physically or mentally themselves.
In making the presentation to the students, I told them of my background growing up in very tough and very poor neighborhoods, and being the oldest of nine children, and often times having to stand up physically for my brothers, sisters and other children in the neighborhood. That continued in high school where I was thankfully able to do the same thing.
After marriage and before my wife, Linda, and I had children, we had discussed this issue as far back as the early 1970s. It was about the time that Linda and I had our two children that we decided that they would be taught from the very beginning not only to respect all people and to refrain from any bullying, but to put upon them the responsibility of defending the abused, the ostracized and the lonely. We also made it a point to insist that our children sit with the child that was left alone by themselves in the cafeteria, to be inclusive in their friendships, and to be that person that would have the courage to stop the abuse and bullying of others. Fortunately, my kids came from a position of means as they were both athletes and they had leadership qualities. As far as I know, they did exactly what Linda and I had told them to do. I’ve not only seen this first-hand, but I’ve also been told this by a number of adults and children in our community.
All that was well and good and worked for my family and the people whose lives were involved, but the problem was that the world, after my children left high school some 15-plus years ago, became a meaner place. And certainly with the advent of Facebook and other easily accessible outlets that have the ability to impact hundreds if not thousands of people, the problem of bullying became even worse. Surely, most of us have seen the newspaper articles dealing with people who’ve actually committed suicide because of being bullied by their classmates. It was because of my background and the stories that I had read and seen and having recognized how cruel people can be at times that Linda and I decided to do what we could to promote kindness and anti-bullying in the three counties in which we feel we have the strongest connections – Ohio County, Marshall County, and Belmont County. It was after we made that decision that we talked to our partners at the Bordas & Bordas law firm and there was an agreement reached that we would do this “be nice, anti-bullying, fighting for justice campaign.”
As mentioned above, I just had the experience of meeting many of the students who were nominated and received our award, along with their parents. They truly are the type of people that should have been nominated and chosen for the award. The thing that I would like to see happen, though, is that the leadership would filter down to the average student and the average athlete or the non-athlete, so that they could be recognized for their kindness, their good acts and the positions they take on bullying. I would hope in the very near future that the message would go out and we would have a mixture of award recipients. Part of the problem is that we are getting the nominations for the anti-bullying campaign mostly from teachers and principals. Although that is who we thought would most likely nominate the award winners, the intent was not to limit the nominations to that certain class of people. I would therefore encourage anyone in the community who knows of a high school student that routinely shows acts of kindness and courage with respect to preventing bullying and so forth to call our office and provide us with their name and school and information about that child and the reasons why you believe that this person should receive the award. Our telephone number is 304-242-8410.
All award winners will receive a $500 check from my law firm, as well as another token of our appreciation for their recognition.
