Actor Quinton Aaron warmed hearts with his performance as larger-than-life Baltimore Ravens football player Michael Oher in the 2009 film “The Blind Side. ” And, last week, he was in town seeking to change hearts and minds about bullying.
Last summer, the actor launched the Quinton Aaron Foundation, an organization dedicated to combating bullying in schools, and last week stopped in the Philadelphia area, meeting with local students and promoting his foundation’s mission as part of an antibullying tour.
“I started this foundation because almost everybody I knew growing up was bullied,” he said. “To see something that affected you still being an issue on a major scale than it was … it just triggered for me that bullying has to be dealt with.”
Although some may be surprised to find out that the 6-foot-8 actor was bullied, Aaron said he was targeted for his skinny frame in elementary school and was verbally attacked in middle school after he went through a growth spurt.
“I was bullied all through elementary school and in middle school. I moved from New York to Georgia and, being in a new city, I was cast out,” he said. “I went through it all — the running home from school and being beat up as a scrawny kid in elementary school all the way up to middle school, where I was made fun of for my bad clothes because I didn’t have money to afford good clothes.”
Aaron said his mom put him in self-defense classes to help him cope, something he said can help youth with self-confidence.
“I never started or instigated any attacks or fights, but my mom wanted to make sure if it ever came to that point, I knew how to defend myself. Once you are taught how to defend yourself, you are taught self-respect and obedience.”
Aaron said part of the message he’s trying to get out on his tour is that parents should take a more serious role in their children’s day-to-day lives.
“A lot of the times when a child’s grades change, [the bullying] they are going through is a reason for the big difference. It is pretty hard to focus on doing your schoolwork because you have kids who are beating you up or picking on you,” he said. “If you don’t have anyone to talk to about that, it is hard to hold all of that in and be this outstanding student. Bullying affects more than just grades, but lives. How many suicides have we had just because kids feel that they don’t belong on this planet anymore?”
Aaron said one of the best ways to combat bullying is to face it head-on.
“I don’t know if there is an overall way to end bullying, but I want to be involved as much as possible to help bring it to an end. We want to come up with different methods of reaching out to kids and parents. We will move in the right direction. We want change,” he said. “Everyone can relate to it, and discussing it would give them clarity or a sense of relief and help them to move forward and try and change the future for our kids. You have to start early and teach them what is right and what is wrong from a very early age.”
For more information on the Quinton Aaron Foundation, visit www.quinton-aaron.org.