Image credit to Fast Company
The Act
of Being
an Upstander
is Heroic
It is not suggested or expected by society. It takes incredible courage and strength. It is a sign of greatness. It is an act of love. Historic figures of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Mahatma Ghandi made their mark on history through acting as upstanders motivated by love of others.
GAB seeks to inspire communities and cultivate future leaders through a message of love. Becoming an upstander is an act of love that our world is in great need of.
Generations Against Bullying was founded and exists to share a message of love through various programs held in our communities and within our schools.
Did you have a Heroic Upstander Moment? Did you witness another GAB Peer Ambassador have a Heroic Upstander Moment? Post it here!
Tell us about your heroic upstander moment below!
People should really pay attention to what they’re saying.
This is about a time that I felt I was an up-stander during school.
I was in one of my classes and while the teacher was teaching two kids were whispering.
I looked over and saw that one kid was actually really bothering the other. The kid was name calling the other “idiot” and “stupid.”
I knew these kids weren’t necessarily friends so I knew this wasn’t two friends fooling around with each other. I immediately went over to the two and told the other one to stop what they were doing and leave the other kid alone.
I told them that the mean comments weren’t necessary. Neither of the kids said anything back to me or each other but the kid that was name-calling moved a few seats away.
This situation relates a lot to our lesson we recently had on upstanding where we practiced activities and strategies to becoming confident enough to be an upstander.
I feel as though these things we learned, and that I’ve now applied, really make a difference the way GAB has identified that the bullying will stop within 10 seconds of me saying something.
I believe that out of me upstanding for my classmate it changes not only our perspective but many others perspectives and realize that people should really pay attention to what they’re saying. Even if it doesn’t seem like a big deal.
Ariel Griffin | GAB Peer Ambassador
A very rude tweet
I was inside my home and on social media. I was just enjoying reading what others were doing in their free time when I came across a very rude tweet. A male tweeted something very rude about another boy who is always a target. The tweet stated that the boy was dumb and ugly. He was also explaining how nothing the boy ever said was relevant
and tweeted some very embarrassing photos of him. I felt terrible for this boy so I messaged the “tweeter” that what he was saying was very rude and that if someone did the same thing to him, he would be very upset. I also asked him why he tweeted it and the boy had no answer so he took the tweet down. I learned that standing up for someone stops the issue from growing 85% of the time.
This motivated me to want to stand up for the boy who was being bullied. I also learned that for the most part, standing up for someone doesn’t affect you at all so no one should be scared. Even if I had been affected, I have easy access to help which is great. This stopped the tweeter from saying pointless mean things. Ever since then, I haven’t seen him tweet anything mean or rude. It also made me feel like a great person and gave him a reality check. Not only that but now others won’t be following in his footsteps and the boy being targeted won’t get affected anymore.
Tess Schaefer | GAB Peer Ambassador
A Heartwarming Story
Last night a friend told me to attend this movement about Bullying by GAB who set out in Kenosha, Wisconsin, my Hometown. GAB is a NATIONAL movement for Generations Against Bullying. Read my story Below…
So… I walked in the building tonight and they said, “Here’s a raffle ticket and if you win, you get an Autographed Jersey and Picture with a FORMER NFL STAR who played for the GREEN BAY PACKERS.” Then I SAY I WILL… WIN!
The wide event was about Bullying and Stopping it. After the VIDEO they called my number and all I knew is I had the number with the 6 at the end. I said Out loud, “I won!”, and went up their and Said, “Mr. Hendrickson, I want you to give this to someone who needs it more than me.” He said, “Wow!” I had everyone shocked! So Mr. Hendrickson said, “I have someone in Mind… Luke”, also known by Lucas. Lucas came up and I gave him a BIG hug.
I don’t know much of his story however, but it SHOCKED THE ENTIRE MEDIA and everyone. God work’s in mysterious ways. I love you God and Wendy Smith. I was happy to be the man of God and an inspiration to others. 🙂 Nice meeting you as well Wendy!!! Out of all the People… I won, and their was a lot of people there.
just take a breath and be cool.
One day when I was at school trying to learn I noticed a kid walking through the halls and he accidentally bumped into another kid and he said “Move it loser.”
He was a freshmen and freshmen are timid and impressionable when they see things that upperclass men do they take it really seriously.
I know this because I am a freshmen and this is how I feel about how we interact with upperclassmen.
Even though I am a freshmen I told the older kid that it wasn’t the freshmen’s fault, accidents happen in crowded hallways. I told him to just take a breath and be cool.
I really feel as though I had the confidence to do this from all of the confidence activities we practiced in our last meeting in November. That meeting was really impactful in reminding us all of our self confidence and because of it I feel as though I really helped someone out.
Ahmely B. | GAB Peer Ambassador
Just Hangin’
Today my friend Sheridan and I hung up posters around our school. On those posters we have sayings that may inspire ones mind to think positively. In the long run we want these posters to help us stop bullying and cause a better living environment for everyone. We also are trying to promote GAB, so more people will know they can join. This was really fun and I had a blast talking to people when they asked to explain the posters.
– Sidney S., Peer Ambassador
Senior Peer Ambassadors are The Best
At the GAB meeting in November, my friends Ahmely, Helena, and Huong and I enjoyed all of our snacks that GAB provided which were really good and it’s always so nice when they bring us snack after a long day of school. In the November meeting we talked a lot about what it means to be a bystander and how to have confidence in yourself to be able to stand up for others. T
he Senior Ambassadors had a lot of fun games planned for us like a game called Dark Crawlers. For this game we all had to lay on the floor in the dark and then when the Senior Ambassadors told us we could move only using our arms to find another person in the dark and then once we found them we had to whisper to them the answers to the questions that related to our self confidence.
The best part of the event besides the food, which is always really great, is the really fun and interactive games that the Senior Ambassadors do for us. The main outcome of this meeting was to learn that to be a bystander takes a lot of confidence and we can all grow our confidence no only to become a better bystander for those who can upstaged themselves but for also the good of our own lives.
Ally Hensel | GAB Peer Ambassador
Upstander Opportunity! Summer Camp
While us peer ambassadors have been taking a sort of break from GAB this summer, I’ve been able to use some of my well earned GAB skills elsewhere.
During the week of August 3rd to the 7th I volunteered to be a teacher’s assistant at a summer camp through Discovery World.
My particular camp had children who were 2nd to 5th graders and to my surprise I was able to recognize bullying even though these kids were young and in elementary school.
There were several instances but I’d like to pinpoint one that took place between two young boys that were both going into fifth grade.
For this story I’ll give them fake names, John and Dylan.
John had longer hair unlike other boys and was a child who irritated other kids often. One day John was annoying Dylan, so Dylan came to me saying, “She won’t stop annoying me!” I replied, “Who are you talking about?” and in return Dylan said, “John, she is just so annoying! Can you tell her to stop? I’ve told her to stop tons of times.”
At this point I was more concerned that Dylan was calling this boy John a girl more than John annoying him, so I asked Dylan, “Why are you referring to John as a girl while you’re talking about him?” To this Dylan replied quite angrily, “Well it’s so confusing! How am I supposed to tell? She has long hair and doesn’t look like a boy!”
We were close to where John was sitting, so I told Dylan to move with me closer to the corner so we could avoid John’s hearing of this conversation and his potential hurt by what Dylan was saying about him. Once we got to the corner I said to Dylan, “What if John were to hear what you were saying? How do you think he would feel? You know he is a boy and calling him ‘she’ or referring to him as ‘her’ would hurt his feelings and might make feel bad about himself for having long hair, even though he likes it. What if some other boy referred to you as a girl? How would you feel?”
Dylan then told me while looking at the ceiling, “Well, I would be very mad because I am a boy! I wouldn’t want to be called a girl, I’m a boy and I would feel sad if someone called me a girl. I’m a boy!” He was quite defensive of his gender and so I then said, “See look how mad you would be if that would happen to you. Now think how you would make John feel if he had heard what you said. From now on to avoid this you could think about what you say before you say it to another person to avoid hurting them. Do you understand?” Dylan then asked, “Well how would I know if what I’m saying is going to hurt them?” I finally told him, “Well you be empathetic, you put yourself in their shoes and think about what you’re going to say will hurt. If it does hurt you then don’t say it.
What you did just before when I had asked you how you would feel if someone called you a girl and you told me you’d be sad was you putting yourself into John’s shoes. Now you know not to talk about him as a girl.” He then walked back to his seat and sat down, didn’t talk to the kids around him, he just looked deep in thought as if processing what I had just said to him. Then he smiled and started playing with the other kids again.
GAB has allowed me to become alert to comments that could be considered bullying and since I saw this situation as such I was able to teach a kid a lesson that would benefit others around him because he’ll now be thinking before he speaks and won’t be referring to John as a girl despite his long hair.
This is an important thing for kids to know, that what they say can hurt people’s feelings though they still are pretty young they can internalize what being hurt feels like and know it isn’t a good thing. We need to help spread the word about bullying to the young so they can learn at this young age what is right and wrong and hopefully it will steer them away from bad habits that blossom into thorns when they grow older and become preteens.
These thorns are bullying tendencies that will cause preteens to potentially lose self esteem and confidence about who they are and who they want to be and make them hate themselves or, the worst, hurt themselves because of what someone has told them.
I’m glad GAB has taught me to be an upstander, it truly has made me a better person.
Sheridan Schaefer – Peer Ambassador
I’m very thankful for GAB
GAB has done so many things for me. But if I were to pick the top ones they’d be learning how to recognize bullying and standing up for those who are being bullied. I used to think it was such a difficult thing, to stand up to the bully who seems to overpower everyone. But, through GAB, I’ve come to the realization that it is the bully who is the weak one and it usually takes almost nothing to make them stop. GAB has taught me that bullying comes in all sorts of forms; it isn’t always beating someone up or saying mean things to them that is considered bullying. It is also the little things said every day that builds up and cause so much pain and hurt.
These little side comments can be made by strangers, but most importantly friends. When friends say mean things to each other it is most of the time just blown off by a small laugh or a, “I was just kidding!” making them believe the thing they said was okay. This is the type of bullying that I believe to be the worst because it secretly hurts the victim inside. So when I witness a person saying “little things” that are pushed away as nothing, I know that they could potentially hurt that person inside. I continue by standing up for them and tell the bully they’re wrong and they shouldn’t say things like that. Most of the time the bully shies away, face reddened, embarrassed from the fact that they just hurt someone. I then follow by telling the person that I don’t agree with the statement the bully said. I’m very thankful for GAB, without it I wouldn’t have as much strength to speak and be an up stander!
Sheridan, Peer Ambassador