Former Bullied Student Speaks Out | News

ANNANDALE, Va. (WUSA) - Prosecutors in the Chardon, Ohio school shooting say the suspect chose his victims at random and that bullying didn't have anything to do with it. But we haven't heard from the defense attorney yet, and the talk that the shooter may have been bullied has a local college student speaking out.

"When I was being bullied, I thought everyone hated me. Even the people who said they liked me, I thought hated me," said David Aponte, who is now a confident and impressive student at Northern Virginia Community College and is headed to George Washington University next year.

But when he was in elementary school, he was bullied relentlessly by kids who used to be his friends. They taunted him for being Jewish, short and smart, he says.

"They would just start making fun of me for various things. For my size, for my religion, the fact that I was in the gifted education program. Really just constantly degrading me. I mean, it's all of the things I was proud of. I've always been proud of my religion. It just hurt to hear on a daily basis how my religion could be used against me," says Aponte.

Though he left his bullies behind in his new middle school, the bullying had broken him down, leaving emotionally unstable. 

"At that point, my self esteem was just gone, once I got into middle school. And I was just really just blaming myself for everything. I couldn't make friends because I couldn't trust anybody," says Aponte.

He was so angry, he thought about lashing out, and can understand how a child who's bullied can resort to violence... as the alleged shooter at the Ohio school did tragically. What saved David from hurting himself or others was the group he joined: the Anti Defamation League. There, he learned how to cope with the bullying and channel his anger toward something positive, like music.

Now, through his work with the Anti Defamation League and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Network where he serves as a chair, he gives talks at area high schools about how to stop bullying. Here's are some suggestions.

"If you see someone sitting alone, go and sit with them. Something as simple as sitting with them at lunch can turn a life around," Aponte says.

He also advises not using the word 'gay' in a derogatory way. "That can be very hurtful to someone who is gay, even if they cover and pretend to laugh," says Aponte.

He believes he's helped change people minds, recalling one time a girl stood up after one of his talks and confessed to being a bully without realizing it. He said she apologized, vowed to not behave that way anymore and thanked him.

Aponte says his parents were very helpful when he was being bullied. They talked to him a lot, supported him and even reported the bullies to his school. Although that backfired, he says parents need do need to report it and stay on school officials if the bullying keeps up.