Standing up for one another- Bullies mock cheerleader with Down Syndrome, basketball players stop the game to step in for her

Many of us might not have seen the recent story making rounds on the internet on how three teenage basketball players stood up to bullies. This act of kindness and love has been the talk of many and melting everyone’s hearts.

Most times, people play a blind eye to the misfortunes of others. We often seem not to care and prefer minding our business, without knowing that together we stand, united we fall.

Bullying has been always been a topic of interest and one of the best ways to curb it is always speaking up or acting fast when you see someone bullied, but sometimes it seems all those sermons are for nothing.

Many of us went to high school and some have stories to tell on how they were bullied and everyone seemed to never see or choose not to care. Sometimes, it looks like the schools’ staff aren’t doing much to put a stop to such behavior and protect the victims.

This time around some students stood up for their friend who was being bullied; they wanted everyone to know they won’t tolerate bullying.

Miles Rodriguez, Chase Vasquez, and Scooter Terrien from the Lincoln Middle School, Wisconsin, were all playing when they noticed a rival team picking on Desiree Andrews, one of the cheerleaders. This annoyed them to the core and they had to stop the game and make sure no one bullied her any longer.

Speaking of the incident, Chase told Milwaukee news outlet, “The kids in the audience were picking on D, so we all stepped forward.”

When the rest of the team saw what some of their teammates did, they left the court.

“We were mad. We didn’t like that. We asked our sports director to talk to the people and tell them not to make fun of her,” 14-year-old Miles recalled.

Desiree is with down syndrome and decided to join the cheerleaders after she saw a girl with Down Syndrome being one in her favorite TV show, “Glee.”

She always cheered her teammates from the sideline and it pained them the most when they saw her getting bullied.

Athletic Director Timothy Nieman was deeply touched by the gesture that he hung a banner with the new title and said, “This is what standing up, being a true team, not only a basketball team but a team of people that are going to support somebody.”

Scooter later said, “It’s not fair when other people get treated wrong, because we’re all the same. We’re all created the same; God made us the same way.” Honestly, we can’t agree more and we are glad such young kids understand what it means not to let others get hurt for who they are.

I hope we all learned something from this.