When 11-year-old Brooke Dalton found a letter from a bully in her backpack, rather than letting it get her down, she decided to stay positive and respond with kindness.
Brooke is a 6th grader at Rincon Middle School in Escondido, California, and her family has been in and out of homelessness for close to four years. They’ve lived in motels, in their van, and currently are staying in an RV. After finishing school one day, she found a mean letter from a bully, who seemed to know of their situation, inside of her backpack.
“I felt very upset inside because we just started the school year. I don’t know why I would get a note like this, it’s not like they know me that much,” Brooke said.
The note called her fat, ugly, a profanity, accused her of having “ebola” and went so far as to say they hoped 11-year-old Brooke died. It was signed, “someone who can afford more than you.”
“How can people be so cruel to people who haven’t even done anything?” Brooke said. “I just want to ask them, ‘Why did you have to give this to me?’ but I kind of am grateful that they gave it to me because then I can do the right thing with the note and then I can make sure other kids don’t get this note,” said Brooke.
While the note is very cruel and Brooke’s living situation is difficult, she has a lot of love and respect for her mom.
“I thought that was actually very personal because my mom tries super hard to get enough money for us by working; she literally is doing two jobs,” Brooke said.
“We have a lot of our own little personal hardships going on,” shared Brooke’s mother, “that was almost evident, you know, that that person who wrote that letter knew.”
While the letter was at first a difficult process, Brooke decided that rather than letting it make her angry, she wanted to instead promote kindness for one another and to help others who may be in a similar situation of being bullied.
On their family van which drops her off at school, Brooke wrote the messages, “Spread Kindness” “I Am Strong” and “Bully Back Off.”
“No matter how many times I get bullied, I always stay positive, so other people know that they can still stay positive,” Brooke says.
The school has taken appropriate action toward the student who wrote the note.
Credit : Understanding Compassion.