BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Jonathan Jackson, 12, is on a mission to teach his peers about empathy in hopes of seeing a change in how we treat each other.
“I see kids at school, they be fighting. I see roughhousing, punching each other real hard. I saw two girls fighting each other in the gym,” said Jackson.
That was enough for Jackson to start his No Fear Campaign, pushing for his peers to take a stand against bullying. For this shy yet outgoing sixth grader, this campaign is personal.
“Well, I was getting bullied in my fifth-grade school,” said Jackson, “I felt really sad, and I just did nothing.”
Now, he’s doing something, working alongside America, My Oyster Association for his Global Youth Service Day project.
“He was one of our youngest graduates from our Building a Better America Today with AMOA, which is diversity, equity, and inclusion and empathy training program, he was our youngest graduate, and he was just thrilled with the communicating with empathy course so much that he spoke to his mother and said that he wanted to start his own campaign to end fighting and bullying at his school,” said AMOA Founder Bea Gyimah.
Jackson is well on his way with his mission, even meeting with the mayor about his campaign. He also plans to have his campaign implemented in other East Baton Rouge Parish schools as well.
While Jackson does admit that words do cut deep, he’s using them as motivation to be a voice for others.
“People were calling me names and all that stuff. I can’t remember the names that they called me, but it was pretty heartbreaking, but I’m here to help kids conquer fear,” said Jackson.
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