About two and a half years ago a 14-year-old boy in northwest Iowa took his own life after being aggressively bullied at school. While I didn’t know Kenneth Weishuhn, I’ve since talked about his story countless times and dedicated hours of volunteer work in his honor.
It was the Sioux City Journal’s front page editorial about taking action against such vicious bullying that caught my attention and drew me to Weishuhn’s story.
Together with the publisher of the Marshalltown newspaper, I helped found a community group dedicated to raising awareness about bullying and taking proactive measures to prevent bullying.
The partnership includes the city, schools, police department, domestic violence coalition, chamber, YMCA and many others. The idea was that maybe if a kid like Kenneth felt he had nowhere to turn, he might see the community as an ally. Perhaps together we could avoid such a tragedy.
The Marshalltown project teamed up with a national organization called Not In Our Town, a movement that began in Billings, Mont., 20 years ago as a response to hate crimes. In June, I took part in a conference in Billings in which the Marshalltown project was lauded as a model for the national organization and included a film premiere about our efforts.
I’m incredibly proud of the work Marshalltown’s NIOT group has accomplished. A short list includes creating a community pledge against bullying signed by thousands, sponsoring numerous films and discussions about bullying, community rallies, lobbying for improved legislation, providing violence prevention training to students and numerous other events that raised awareness about domestic and workplace violence.
On Tuesday, I’ll make a quick trip to Marshalltown to attend one of Gov. Terry Branstad’s listening posts about bullying prevention and check in with my friends on the Not In Our Town committee.
While my work in Marshalltown subsided with my departure from my job there, it will certainly continue to influence me.
I know that when I was a kid I didn’t always realize you can be funny without being mean, and that speaking up for someone is not only admirable, but the right thing to do. Somewhere along the way it became really important to me that kids make this realization.
While some might think bullying is a rite of passage for kids, I know that certainly wasn’t the case for Kenneth Weishuhn, and countless other kids.
It all boils down to a concept with a pretty cool name — the Golden Rule.
Contact Editor Abigail Pelzer at (641) 792-3121 Ext. 6530 or apelzer@newtondailynews.com