‘Glee’ star speaks out against bullying
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“Stand Up” antibullying week culminated with La Cañada’s middle school students rising from their seats to the tunes of Los 5. The Latin pop-rock band shared the La Cañada High auditorium last Friday with Glee’s Max Adler.
The celebrity appearances were the cap to a week of education on bullying for seventh- and eighth-graders. Students watched the documentary “Bully,” made their own short film on the subject and sported “Stand-Up” wristbands and shirts.
Through playing a bully on television, Adler said he learned that picking on others often stems from inner insecurity.
“You knock down someone else to make you feel better,” Adler, who played school jock Dave Karofsky on “Glee.” On the show, Karofsky bullied openly gay student Kurt Hummel because of his closeted homosexuality and eventually attempts suicide after being outed.
“If you are bullied, I want you to know you don’t have it coming,” Adler told the students. “You don’t deserve it.”
LCHS 7/8 Principal Ryan Zerbel, who also gave a presentation Thursday on bullying, said the goal is to show students that they can make a difference, even as a bystander.
“This week was so much about choices,” Zerbel said. “You have the choice to stand up for yourself and for others. If just one person stands up, that makes waves.”
If national statistics reflect locally, there are plenty of opportunities for La Cañada students to stand up to bullies. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly one in three students say they have been bullied at school.
But, as one La Cañada eighth-grade student pointed out, bystanders may not speak up for fear that the bully will turn on them. The student raised this concern to Adler after hearing the actor’s endorsement of standing up to bullies.
“It is definitely a risk, but that’s what starts it,” Adler responded. “Most likely, other people around you agree. If enough people stand up, the bully will realize what is happening and back down.”
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Natalie Wheeler is a freelance writer.