How losing my son made me fight for change.

We have got to let these kids realize that it's okay to care about other people. - Kirk Smalley, StandForTheSilent.ORG #WordsCanLeaveAMark
How losing my son made me fight for change. | Kids in the House
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How losing my son made me fight for change.

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- In other, when you lose a child to suicide especially because of being bullied, there is a lot of anger there. And we get mad at the school, we get mad at each other, my wife and I do, we get, we get mad at ourselves, and you know, occasionally we even get mad at Ty. You've got to find something inside yourself to overcome the anger, to realize that by doing what we do we can actually stop this from happening to another baby. I get messages, literally by the thousands, from kids that say I was gonna kill myself, until I heard you speak, and now I'm not. So I know that we're not only changing lives, we're actually saving lives. I know that for a fact. I decided a long time ago, you know, one month and 7 days after my baby killed himself, it was on Father's Day, I actually made Ty a promise, I promised him that I was gonna stop bullying in this world. I have actually never broke a promise to my boy. I don't know that I can keep that promise. But I do know, that I will go to my grave trying. We have raised a generation, we're actually two I think now, that don't even know what empathy means anymore. And we have to, we have to teach these kids that we can feel, that we can care about each other. You know we have children that have grown up playing video games where they get points for killing people, and that's a good thing to them. They watch cartoons where a little boy dies in every single episode, and he gets to come back tomorrow. What's that teaching them? Death ain't real? Life's cheap, we get to come back tomorrow. We have got to let these kids realize that it's okay to care about other people I find the strength daily to do what I do, and relive the nightmare that I live two and three times a day because of the promise I made my boy. Because I know that I have to be the best person that I can possibly be while I'm still here on this Earth so that I can see him again.


We have got to let these kids realize that it's okay to care about other people. - Kirk Smalley, StandForTheSilent.ORG #WordsCanLeaveAMark

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Kirk Smalley

President, Stand for the Silent

Kirk and Laura Smalley lost their 11 year old son Richard Ty Field on May 13th 2010 to suicide due to constant bullying. Since then they have been speaking out against bullying to over 1,100 schools and community organizations reaching over 1,250,000 youths and adults, as well as meeting with president Obama and the first lady. They have been invited to speak in 42 states and 16 countries to date. Our mantra is a simple statement born from a commitment to a child lost – to stop bullying in our world today.  With unequaled dedication and commitment, they have  tirelessly labored  to inspire a world where our children can be safe and where no other parent feels the agony of a child lost to the effects of bullying.

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