Schools

Speaker Urges Middle-Schoolers to 'Take A Stand'

Mark Brown, a world-champion motivational speaker, spent 45 minutes Tuesday with each grade level at Shivela Middle School in Murrieta, reminding them their words can sting.

Students at Shivela Middle School in Murrieta were reminded Tuesday that their words count.

All grades were treated to a special guest speaker, Mark Brown, from QSP, Inc., the company the school does a yearly magazine fundraiser through. Brown, an award-winning motivational speaker, gave his Emmy-nominated presentation against bullying.

Originally from Jamaica, Brown's accent bellowed out through the multipurpose room, with enough humor to catch students' attention followed by a more serious topic: bullying.

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He confessed he'd been bullied as a sixth-grader by three girls, one of whom arranged for her brother to beat him up after school one day.

"I will not forget their names, 39 years later," Brown said. "What will you remember in 39 years? When they open a yearbook in 2050, what will they remember about you?

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"What can you do here at your school? You can go out of your way to talk to someone you would normally talk about."

As a reminder to "Take A Stand" against bullying, every student was given a bracelet courtesy of QSP.

Gary Maxwell, QSP field sales manager for the area, said having Brown speak at schools is one of the bonuses the company offers.

"It is amazing to be able to do this for our schools," Maxwell said.

However, Brown only manages to make it to about 150 schools per year, out of about 125,000 schools nationwide. He said Brown was scheduled to speak at another school that canceled at the last moment, allowing him to speak at Shivela.

Samantha Marshall, 13, an eighth-grader, admitted she'd been a target of bullying at school--about her body image.

"It didn't make me feel good," Samantha said.

After the assembly, Samantha said she was willing to take a stand.

"I can stand up for people more. I am going to be a lot more open to people and not judge them right away."

Mary Ricks, eighth-grade counselor at Shivela, said a lot of students do come forward about bullying.

"A lot of it is words, unkind words," Ricks said. "I don't know if they know the impact of their words."


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