Locals Team With Olympic Gold Medalist, Pro Wrestler Kurt Angle to Fight Bullying

The world is far different in 2012 than it was 50 years ago, and a clear indication of that is the number of deaths due to "bullycide."

“I was a senior in high school when (the shooting at) Columbine happened,” Robert Gibbons, 31, of Freehold, said. “The teachers were all scared. The kids in my school, who were good kids, expected something like this to happen, not at our school, but somewhere. There’s a big disconnect between generations when it comes to bullying.”

That’s why Gibbons, 30-year-old Toms River native Anthony DeGraaf and 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist and professional wrestler Kurt Angle are working together on a national anti-bullying campaign labelled United Strong Against Bullying (USA Bullying).

Local business owner Ava Holly Lewis and Galloway Township Councilwoman Whitney Ullman are also involved in the project, which is still in its beginning stages.

“I’ll support anything that makes people more aware of bullying,” Ullman said. “It’s different than it was years ago. There’s more fatalities. It’s a big problem.”

“I was not bullied, but there was a sense of people not liking me for a little while,” said Lewis, President of 4A Star, LLC. “ … Bullying’s worse than it used to be. The statistics say something like every half hour, someone commits suicide. … It’s good to be able to help in getting this off the ground.”

Lewis will serve on the board for the group, and Ullman said once the campaign gets in full swing, she will see what role she ends up playing.

Over 200,000 students bring a weapon to school, and over 70 percent of those who bring weapons to school say they do so with revenge in mind, according to Gibbons.

“When our parents were kids, they were raised with the mentality to suck it up,” Gibbons said. “Kids have more access to drugs and guns. It doesn’t end at school. With social media, you need to be on an island to get away from all this.”

The goal of USA Bullying is to get everyone to feel like they are on the same team, and to feel that if an incident of bullying is happening to someone near them, it’s happening to them. Gibbons explained that he has been bullied and he has been a bully, and to him, neither one felt good.

“If you see someone who gets tripped, don’t laugh,” Gibbons said. “You’ll feel better about yourself and other people will feel good about you.”

Gibbons said the goal is not to teach students not to use violence to solve the problem.

“We’re going to use motivational speaking,” Gibbons said. “We’re going to make presentations in schools, and we want it to be interactive. We want to show the power of unity. We’re going to find a way to unite the popular kids with someone who is not as popular. If they’re there for the right reasons, everything will fall into place.”

Gibbons painted the picture of an auditorium or gymnasium of students chanting louder and louder in unison, “I am a champion,” just as what would occur at a pep rally.

“We’re building our team,” DeGraaf said. “We want to be like DARE. DARE has taken the lead on drugs, and we want to do the same thing with bullying.”

It begins with awareness, and USA Bullying is currently negotiating with various high schools to make appearances and get their campaign started. The message goes beyond awareness, though.

“We want to hear testimonials. We want to make their lives easier,” DeGraff said.

DeGraaf said that ideally, USA Bullying would like to be able to send a student who is being bullied on vacation, and try to resolve the situation at home while the person being bullied is away.

“It’s no good to send someone on vacation if they’re going to come back to the exact same situation at home,” DeGraaf said. “We’ll make a video and bring it to the principal while they are away.”

Angle will be part of the whole process, including sharing stories of being bullied from his youth.

“Kids like to hear stories like that,” Gibbons said. “The message is don’t let it turn inward; turn it outward.”

Gibbons and DeGraaf met three years ago. DeGraaf says Gibbons has a strong voice and makes strong presentations, while Gibbons hails DeGraaf’s commitment and hard work for getting them to the point they are at right now.

DeGraaf and Angle have been working together for four years, since DeGraaf introduced the grappler to Limu., an all-natural seaweed supplement that helped Angle deal with the constant pain he was under from working a strenuous schedule while with the WWE.

The three of them now work together on Angle Foods and the Choked Out Apparel clothing line.

Angle now wrestles for TNA, and is preparing for another run at Olympic gold this year, after having won the gold in 1996. He also won the 1995 Olympic Style World title and six national championships.

He also has a lot of pull with today’s youth.

“We took Kurt to Manalapan High School, which is my high school, and there were over 2,200 kids there chanting USA,” Gibbons said. “He answered questions and interacted with the crowd. It was a special day for me.”

Angle will be instrumental in creating the kind of atmosphere USA Bullying is trying to create in high schools across the nation and, DeGraaf and Gibbons are hoping, internationally.

“We’re going to share all our stories and project a positive message,” Gibbons said. “Awareness is great, but the end game is trying to stop it. We will be saving lives at the end.”