Clearview Elementary students learned how to bulldoze bullies Thursday afternoon during the Bulldoze the Bully assembly presented by educational speaker and magician Brian Richards. 

 

Richards’ performance combined juggling, magic tricks and jokes to hold the students’ attention while imparting how important it is to make school a safe and bully-free zone.

 

He told the students juggling three balls tied into the three important parts of his message. 

 

“First, confidence is your best friend,” he said. “Believing in who you are is a good way to be confident and not feel like you have to join in.”

 

The second part of his message to students was ‘don’t join in,’ and if they can, when they see someone being a bully to go up and tell them they’re not being nice.

 

“Third, silence is not golden,” said Richards. “If you see someone bullying someone it’s important to tell a trusted adult.”

 

He used a pineapple to help illustrate a story he told them about when he had just moved to a new school as a second-grader.

 

“I had wild hair and looked like a pineapple when I was a kid,” he said. “I walked into class and the first thing someone said was, ‘pineapple head’ and everyone laughed. It hurt but I laughed too so they wouldn’t know. Teasing really hurts.”

 

Richards explained to the students a person usually becomes a bully because they don’t have confidence in themselves. He asked them to go home and write ‘I am confident in. . . ‘ then fill in three things. This way, they can go back, read them and feel confident.

 

He spoke about peer pressure, telling them they have a right to think the way they want to think and the other person has a right to think the way he or she wants to think.

 

He also spoke about people’s differences and told them odd isn’t bad, it’s just different.

 

“Sometimes an odd person will be the most interesting person you’ll ever meet,” he said.

 

Throughout the show he asked students to help him with his magic tricks, all to strengthen his anti-bullying message and keep the crowd engaged.

 

“You can make a bad situation into a good situation depending on how you respond to it,” Richards told the students. “You can’t just say ‘I’m sorry,’ you have to build a relationship so they will trust you again.”

 

He had everyone shout, ‘bulldoze the bully,’ then explained just saying it won’t make bullying disappear. Putting in a lot of work and following the three most important parts of his message [stated earlier] will help.

 

He told the crowd that on average, every day across the United States 1,100 students stay home from school because they’re afraid of bullying. 

 

“That’s why I do this program,” he said. “Let’s work together to make bullying disappear.”

 

Clearview’s PTA sponsored the assembly to coincide with Unity Day.