Haley’s “I was bullied” Message Shared in Schools

Elgin, S.C. (WOLO)  —  Sharing her personal story of being picked on in elementary school, Governor Nikki Haley told a crowded gym of students at Leslie M. Stover Middle School in Elgin that ‘cool kids don’t bully,’ which is also the name of the governor’s statewide anti-bullying campaign.

“If the governor was bullied anybody can be bullied,” said Haley.  “It doesn’t have to mean that when you grow up. It can be a defining moment in your life, a moment of courage and learning how to solve that problem.  My job is to remind them what it means to be a leader, a bully and that it’s better to be a leader and not a bully.”

“When kids see adults and they tell them their story it makes it real and that should help out,” said school principal, Mike Garity.

Haley enlisted the help of college football coaches Dabo Sweeney and Steve Spurrier to drive home that message, through a video called Cool Kids Don’t Bully.

The governor says over the last two years, she’s received hundreds of letters from kids statewide facing all kinds of attacks online and in school and that the school she visits are usually the ones that generate the most complaints and problems.