Long Awaited Response to Bullying- Chance

            A local student group is taking a firm stance on bullying.  There is little question what its goal is with a name like Defy the Hate.                                                                                              The student group is based at Front Range Community College in Fort Collins.  Its mission is to raise awareness of bullying against groups and individuals.  “Defy the Hate is a photography driven campaign,” described founder Matt Angelo.  “The campaign was started in October of 2010 as something I experimented with on my Facebook page,” said Angelo.  “I just posted some pics of myself and got a great response.”                                                                    The main idea of Defy the Hate is for people to express themselves with body paint.  “By March of 2010, a lot of people got involved through word of mouth.  When people show up for a photo shoot, they write their message of anti bullying on their body.  It makes the message more personal.”  The photos are then posted online, via Facebook and Linkedin, and spread throughout the internet.                                                                                                                                           “When I started Defy the Hate, I didn’t expect it to be anything more than anti-bullying.  Since then it has turned into an anti-suicide campaign.”  Angelo is referring to the recent events of cyber bullying’s playing a part in teen suicides.  The important distinction is that online bullying has recently showed trends in suicides related to the bullying.                                                 Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are a new outlet for kids to pick on each other.  Schools and parents are currently faced with how is the proper way to confront the issue, as exemplified in an article by New York Times reporter Jan Hoffman.  The article examines the challenges that one set of parents was faced with when their child was a victim of cyber bullying.  Since the bullying occurred via text message over the weekend, the school’s principle was unable to administer any sort of punishment.  These administrators are still deciding how to deal with situations such as this which involve relatively new technology with few rules in the books.                                                                                                                         “We’re at the age where we’re not seeing bullying like we used to,” said Andy Motis, “bullying is at a completely new level with social networking like Facebook on the rise.”  Motis is a student at Front Range Community College. As a board member for Defy the Hate, Motis serves as the Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual liaison.  In this postion, he has raised awareness of bullying, especially against gays.  He has led the charge by speaking at public rallies and expressing himself through the Defy the Hate Photography campaign.  “Defy the Hate is about standing up for any group or individual that is being broken down by bullies.”                                                        Motis addressed several recent occurrences in the media in which young people have taken their own lives because of the ridicule experienced from online bullying.  “Parents aren’t keeping up with their kids online.  It’s not like it used to be where you could confront a bully that got in your face.  Now it’s all over the web.”   This has been the motivating factor that Motis cites as the advent of Defy the Hate.                                                                                                                    “College wide, bullying on the web is on a much larger scale.”  As a gay man, Motis is sensitive to issues of homosexual abuse.  Cyber bullying has hit close to home when it comes to his stance on gay issues.  “Recently, a spy cam was set up in the room of a homosexual guy by his roommate, and then he posted videos of him having sex with his boyfriend on the web.  The guy later committed suicide.”  This is the sort of situation that Andy Motis and those standing along side him are fighting against.                                                                                                                                                        

Works Cited

Angelo, Matt.  Over the phone interview January 25, 2012. (970)980-9121.

Hoffman, Jan. (2010, June 27).  Online Bullies Pull Schools Into the Fray. New York Times.     Retrieved January 27, 2012, from     http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/style/28bully.html?pagewanted=all

Motis, Andy.  Over the phone interview January 25, 2012.  (970) 308-8290.