Football player tackles bullying Defensiveback brings “Be You” campaign to Pierce College

Jessica Boyer Roundup Reporter

From bullying players on the field to leading an anti-bullying campaign off the field, Pierce College student and current defensive back for the football team, Bobby Baker brings the ‘Be You’ campaign to the college.

“The campaign is to promote and bring awareness to individuality and anti-bullying,” said Baker. “It’s to help and influence people to be themselves.”

Baker has been involved with the “Be You” campaign for about a month, learning about it from his friend, Anthony McLaughlin.

“I think that it’s great that athletes are getting involved,” said Bob Lofrano, athletic director of the Pierce College Athletic Department. “Athletes are usually people out in front and are confident about themselves. I think they’d be a good spokesperson for an anti-bullying campaign. That’s an important topic and hats off to the athletes who have a part in that.”

The “Be You” campaign was founded in 2010 (beyoucampaign. org) by a publicist named Joseph LaCour, known as J. Ryan, and uses photographs to spread awareness about anti-bullying.

The photographs, which are black and white, show individuals representing themselves with objects that reflect who they are.

The campaign has receive notable attention from celebrities some of which include actress Adrienne Ballon.

“Bobby is a smart kid who has influence,” said McLaughlin. “There are a lot of kids being bullied in school. There are a lot of people who feel like they don’t have people to talk to and we want people to know they do have people to talk to.”

Baker was bullied all throughout school, but the worst time was in middle school, he said.

“When I was younger, the black people would say, ‘Oh you’re not full black, you can’t hang out with us’ or the white people would say ‘You’re not full white, you can’t hang out with us.’ When I got older, I realized that I could hang out with whoever I want,” Baker said.

Baker plans on hosting conferences at high schools to bring anti-bullying awareness to younger generations. He also plans to bring the campaign to Pierce.

“At Pierce College, the first thing is to bring awareness and get a lot more athletes involved. Athletes have the most influence out of the entire student body,” Baker said.

“Each club has fans, followers and people going to their games. Not only do the individual athletes have fans, but the entire team has fans. They reach everyone in the stands,

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every classroom and all of their friends on social media. I feel if you start there, it will go widespread.”

Men’s volleyball Tennis Softball

After winning three straight games, the Pierce College men’s tennis team saw its streak come to an end against Glendale Community College on Friday March 13 by a score of 6-3.

Pierce now drops 8-4 for the season and 2-2 in conference play, on the other hand Glendale improves to 9-2 overall and a perfect 5-0 in conference play.

The Brahmas had not lost since since Feb. 20 against Glendale who, with the win, takes both games this season against Pierce. The win also marks Glendale’s second win in a row.