BMX pros bring “No Hate Tour” to Columbia High in effort to prevent bullying

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — The students at Columbia High School were treated to quite the show Thursday morning by a group of professional BMX cyclists —  all in an effort to prevent bullying.

The campaign is known as the “No Hate Tour” and is funded by the U.S. Marine Corps and ASA Entertainment.

BMX pros complete eye popping stunts and impressive tricks — all while sharing their message against bullying.

And the school’s principal, Dr. Shawn Washington, got in on the action as one of the cyclists completed a backflip over her head!

ABC Columbia’s Lee Williams spoke with Tour Manager Dan Sieg about the importance of mixing excitement and energy with their message of empowerment.

“We do so not so much speaking at the bullies, more so speaking at the victims. And saying, hey, it’s gonna happen. As much as we want to stop it, it’s gonna happen regardless. So we’re trying to give them critical tools to allow them to cope with it and deal with it and most importantly block it out altogether, so they can put their head down and stay focused on something they’re passionate about,” says Sieg.

“Very important. Bullying is one of the biggest issues in school, so having people like this come to school is very very important,” says Senior Kyler Hood.

“People need to stop bullying kids, and if you see somebody getting bullied, you need to say something, you know there’s really no point in bullying people,” says 10th grader Shaelyn Scott.

Seig says the feedback from students is what keeps he and his fellow cyclists going.

“Whether it’s one kid a week, three kids a week, five kids sometimes. They’ll come up to me in tears. Literally tearing up and telling me how amazing the show was. You know, the most shy kid in school that gets bullied all the time, goes out of their way to talk to their person who’s been commanding the room for the last hour. That’s a big jump for them, and the fact that they feel comfortable enough to do that, tells me that they heard what I had to say… that’s the warm and fuzzies man, that’s why we do what we do,” says Sieg.

Thursday marks the last day of the 11 week tour that stretched all across the Southeast — including Miami and Baton Rouge.

If your school would like the BMX pros to come, Sieg asks that you reach out to Michelle with ASA Entertainment at michelle@asaent.com.