Anti-bullying speaker featured in documentary shares experience to students

Posted at: 10/04/2012 7:47 PM | Updated at: 10/04/2012 8:04 PM

On Thursday, students met a woman featured in an anti-bullying documentary on "Animal Planet".

On Thursday, Greece Athena Middle School brought in a speaker, who was a victim of bullying, as a part of anti-bullying month.

Gabrielle Ford and her dog, Izzy, were both diagnosed with a rare muscle disease. Throughout her life, she was bullied in school, but she always had her dog by her side.

On Thursday, she told students about her challenges with bullies and how she overcame them.

Gabrielle Ford says, "Kids would come up to me and purposefully they would shove me, they would plush me. Sometimes into the wall."

She also says kids would "... spread rumors behind my back, talk about me... things that weren't true and exclude me, not make me feel welcomed or not let me join in a group. They made me feel like I was an outsider and wasn't really welcomed anywhere really and all of that I think is a part of emotional bullying and in my opinion that's the most hurtful form of bullying."

Thursday's talk was part of a series of anti-bullying presentations going on this month at the school.

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