6 minute read
Anti-Bullying (Lucas
LucasDean Stop Bullying Together
Written by: Michelle Elizabeth Photography: Ava Cantrell Photography (@avacantrellphotography)
Imagine, if you will, for just one moment, that you are a little boy around 7-9 years old, with a heart full of love and compassion and a zest for life. You enjoy acting, singing, and speaking up for social justice. In the school choir you get a lot of solos to sing. The other boys (even the ones who say they are your friends) make fun of you every day, saying you sing like a girl. Even during the actual live performances you can hear them laughing at you and cracking jokes. You’re singing your heart out and you hear them snickering, “He should be wearing a skirt and pigtails to match his girly voice!” Eventually the teacher lectures the class, but nothing changes- It just gets worse! You finally land a part in a movie, but it requires you to dye your hair much darker than usual. As soon as you get to school in the morning you hear, “Hey what’s up, poopie head? Did someone take a crap on your head?” More kids join in together. Worse things are said- stuff we can’t print here- and it continues. All day, every day for a few months. How does this make you feel? Probably not so good, right? All of this is just what happened to child actor Lucas Dean Royalty. He’s 12 now, but all of that happened to him when he was younger. Many children joined together and bullied him mercilessly. Just the simple act of dying his hair for a movie role made it so bad he eventually left traditional schools in favor of homeschooling. What’s worse is that the teachers and administrators didn’t do much to stop it. Oftentimes adults dismiss this reprehensible behavior as “Teasing,” “Horsing around,”or the most harmful of all- “Boys will be boys.”
Lucas Dean has loved acting ever since he was a small child. At 2 years old he was obsessed with the animated movie Cars. His favorite activity was lining up all his toy cars and acting out the entire movie! For years, he begged his parents to let him get into modeling and acting- eventually they gave in. They booked a couple gigs, then while filming award-winning movie “Charming” with writer/director Tom Albanese, Lucas realized that acting was IT for him! He started taking lessons- voice-over, singing, acting, stand up, improv, scene study…. You name it, he wanted to learn it! Royalty has also had a passion for equality and helping others just as long. His mom has videos of him around 4-5 years old ranting about social injustice. He even created his own “12 months of giving” charity campaign in order to give back all year round. Lucas explains “I was already going to some PR events for charities and I was working with- Solving Kids Cancer and St Jude, as well as the Lupus foundation- in honor of my grandmother who died of lupus SLE - and I just wanted to do more.” Lucas and his Mom (who runs his social media accounts) decided to fundraise for a different charity each month on Instagram. They announced the idea the next day and it’s been going strong now for over 2 years!
Back to our thought experiment from before- How did you feel? Being bullied made Lucas feel absolutely horrible. He says, “I remember crying at pick -up a bunch. It was a really bad time in my short life. I hated going to school and would worry all day about recess and what was going to happen to me or get blamed on me. It was definitely the worst 2 years of my life!” Royalty says he didn’t deal with it well; he was hurt and angry, acted out in class, and even pretended to be sick so he could stay home. And he’s not alone. In fact, according to the CDC, “About 1 in 5 high school students reported being bullied on school property. More than 1 in 6 high school students reported being bullied electronically in the last year.” Also, “Nearly 14% of public schools report that bullying is a discipline problem occurring daily or at least once a week. Reports of bullying are highest in middle schools (28%) followed by high schools (16%), combined schools (12%), and primary schools (9%).” Keep in mind, these numbers are only what’s being REPORTED, so that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
We can end bullying together, but it starts at home. Children aren’t born into the world knowing how to hate, it's a learned behavior. Lucas says, “If a child sees their parents making fun of people
or judging them then that will rub off onto the kids. He goes on to say. “It's super important to talk to your children when they are young about seeing the difference in people as a positive or unique thing, not something to hate… We as a world need far less hatred and fear and more understanding and compassion… If people took the time to try to get to know someone before making a judgment about them, that would be a great start. Our world is very diverse and people as a whole seem to have a hard time accepting things or situations that are different or make them uncomfortable. We aren’t always going to agree with a neighbor or a politician but we can agree to disagree without that turning into hatred… It can start with a simple gesture or smile or random act of kindness. Those little things often make a huge difference to someone - you might not know it at the time but it does. That’s what I try to do and [try to] be a positive role model for other kids- showing them it’s ok to not understand something or believe like someone- but that they are still a human with feelings and a soul.”
Want to do more? Stopbullying.gov says “bullying overlaps with discriminatory harassment when it is based on race, national origin, color, sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity), age, disability, or religion. Federally-funded schools (including colleges and universities) have an obligation to resolve harassment on these bases. When the situation is not adequately resolved, consider: Filing a formal grievance with the school district. Contacting the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division for help.”
