Oskaloosa Teens March Against Bullying
Area teens gathered at Penn Central Mall on Saturday to raise awareness and protest bullying. Photo by Hailey Brown.
By Hailey Brown
(Oskaloosa, Iowa) – With handmade signs in tow, five area teens gathered at Penn Central Mall on Saturday to stand in solidarity against bullying.
The “March Against Bullying” had originally been planned to take place on the Oskaloosa City Square and Bandstand, but with temperatures reaching over 95 degrees, the group made a slight detour. Instead, they decided to first meet in the mall and share their personal experiences about bullying before heading outside to make a lap around the square.
Tristin Delaney, who will be a senior this fall, led the charge, funneling awareness of the event through social media. A couple of adults from the community also showed up to ask questions.
While the focus was on their own experiences within the Oskaloosa Community School District, the teens acknowledged that bullying is a nationwide problem that needs to be addressed.
“A lot of people say that we’re just kids and what we think doesn’t matter and that we don’t understand,” said Delaney. “But we see the school shootings happening. We see the bullying. We see nothing being done. Why wouldn’t we have a right to talk about the things that are happening to us?”
Although young, Delaney is no stranger to social activism. She organized the “Oskaloosa High School Walkout” in April of this year to protest gun violence and spoke to a crowd in Des Moines during a student-led demonstration for gun reform called “March for Our Lives”. She also took part in the “Women’s March” in Des Moines this past January. While the walkout in Oskaloosa was met with a firestorm of debate within the community, Delaney maintained that she was proud of it and said the other two protests had given her hope for the future.
Delaney admits that advocating for change has taken a toll on her due to backlash from some of her peers as well as adults. Harsh criticism both in the classroom and online sometimes left her reeling and overwhelmed.
“My bullying definitely got worse after I did the [Oskaloosa High School Walkout],” she said. “Except that wasn’t from just kids. That was from adults, too. People were talking about, that they hoped we got ran over, and calling me names … I really took that to heart. A lot of the time I wouldn’t go out to the store or other places.”
Demonstrating compassion and kindness was a key point of the event, which Delaney hoped would answer some of the criticism in the community urging youth to protest bullying instead of gun violence.
“I thought some of those people who wanted us to protest bullying instead of gun violence might have showed up today,” Delaney vocalized, motioning towards the mostly empty mall center court. “There was so much hate and anger against the original walkout so I thought this might have had more support.”
As for now, Delaney is gearing up for one last year of high school. After much consideration, she has decided to commute to Ottumwa Schools this fall. Although campaigning for change is important to her, she recognizes that her own well-being matters, too.
“The best thing we can all do is teach more kindness and believe people when they speak up about being bullied,” she concluded. “We need to be open about telling people that it’s not okay to bully when we see it happening and we need to be open to listening about the experiences of others if we want things to change.”
