JERSEY CITY — Students at Explore Middle School attended an anti-bullying presentation by professional and motivational speaker Kerry Magro. Magro, who is on the autism spectrum, encouraged students to “choose kindness” and shared his own powerful story of being bullied growing up during his visit to the school this month.
The roughly 50 minute presentation titled “I Used To Be Bullied For Being Different: Here’s When It Stopped” was organized by Explore Middle School’s Anti-Bullying Coordinator and was attended by each class in the school.
“You have power and you can make a difference when you see bullying happening because at the end of the day, words do have power,” Magro told students. Magro further went on to explain to students that some of their favorite celebrities — including Anna Kendrick, Adam Levine, Jennifer Lawrence, Bruno Mars, Demi Lovato, Jessica Alba and Ellen DeGeneres — were bullied when they were in school.
The PowerPoint presentation concluded with students sharing examples of bullying they have seen in the media and expressed how grateful they were to feel welcomed and accepted by their peers at Explore Middle School.
“Mr. Magro provided our students with an engaging and thought provoking presentation about the consequences of bullying,” said Explore Middle School Principal Allyson Krone. “This type of testimonial shows students that bullying is an issue faced everywhere, and they are not too young to make a positive difference by leading the fight against bullying here in our community.”
For additional information contact Caitlin Mota at 201-737-5832 or cmota@vmmi.net
