Villanova Football Stars Bring Anti-Bullying Message to
Fern Hill Elementary School

Marvin Burroughs (left) and DeQuese May autograph a football and a shoe for two Fern Hill students.

Football and bullying don’t mix – a message that was delivered with strong emphasis by two football stars at Fern Hill Elementary School recently.

Marvin Burroughs, a starting quarterback and co-captain of the Villanova University Football Team, and star running back DeQuese May came to the school to talk to fourth and fifth graders about bullying. Burroughs is also a top playmaker in the Atlantic 10 Conference while May is Atlantic 10’s top running back.

At the first assembly, fourth graders were well prepared for the discussion, which got underway with the question, “what is bullying?”

“It’s either teasing or beating someone up or just being rude to them continuously,” a fourth grader volunteered.

“That exactly what I have on my paper. Good job,” May responded.

School guidance counselor Kathy Coulter, who arranged the program, expanded on that definition. A bully, she said, does not always fit the typical profile of someone who calls another person names, ridicules them, or even slams them into a school locker. A bully could be a rumormonger, or someone who starts untrue stories about another person and then delights in seeing the stories spread. Bullying could also take the form of laughing when someone else is being bullied.

In the ensuing discussion, students shared their experiences of being bullied while May described an experience when he was in fourth grade and had transferred to a new school. He was at lunch, he said, when a student sitting next to him “just knocked my tray off the table. I had the spotlight on me and I felt like ‘that big.’”

The two football stars agreed with the students that being bullied elicits feelings of general upset, anger, and embarrassment. They went further than that, however, with Burroughs telling the students that hitting back at a bully won’t solve anything. Rather, they were advised to seek out help from a teacher, counselor, parent, or other trusted adult.

As an immediate reaction t being bullied, May also advised the students to “laugh it off. The bully wants you to feel bad, so it didn’t work (if you laugh).”

Perhaps one of the more provocative questions came from a student who asked, “what if there wasn’t bullying in the world?

“Kids wouldn’t go to school afraid of that one kid, afraid of being laughed at. It would be a great world,” May responded.

The assembly ended with questions about football and a much-anticipated autograph session, during which Burroughs and May signed everything from footballs to sneakers to ticket stubs.

 

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