"Stop Name Calling" - 2004 Student Contest Winner

Oct 20, 2004

“Gabby, get up it’s time to go to school.”

“I don’t feel well, mom.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I have a stomachache. I am really hot, and I feel a little dizzy,” Gabby replied.

“Let me feel your head. You don’t feel warm to me. I’ll take your temperature just to be sure. I’ll be right back,” mom said.

Mom walked down the hall to the bathroom. She looked in the medicine cabinet and took out the thermometer. She walked back down the hall to Gabby’s room. Mom gave Gabby the thermometer to place under her tongue.

“Leave this under your tongue until it beeps. I have to get ready for work. I’ll check the temperature when I come back,” said mom. Mom left the room. Gabby quickly grabbed a penny, and placed it under her tongue along with the thermometer.

Mom walked back into the room just after the thermometer beeped. Gabby took the thermometer from her mouth.
“It says 100 degrees. I guess you’ll be staying home from school today.”

“O.K.,” said Gabby.

“Wait a minute. What was that?” mom asked.

“What was what?” replied Gabby.

“Under your tongue,” said mom.

“Nothing.”

“Lift up your tongue.”

“Why?”

“Just do it,” said mom.

Gabby lifted up her tongue and revealed the penny to her mother.

“Take it out,” mom said.

She took it out.

“Why was there a penny under your tongue?” mom asked.

“I don’t know,” said Gabby.

Her mother gave her a very strong harsh look.

“Don’t lie to me. I want to know the truth. Now!”

“Okay, okay,” said Gabby. “I put it there so it would make my temperature seem high, and you would think I was sick. Then, maybe I wouldn’t have to go to school.”

“Why don’t you want to go to school? I thought you liked going to school.”

“I did,” Gabby mumbled.

“What’s wrong?”

Gabby took a pause.

“Nothing. I don’t really want to talk about it. I’ll just get ready for school, or I’ll be late.”

There was a long, loud silence in the room before mom spoke again.

“I want to know what’s wrong. I know there is something bothering you. You’ve always liked school, and you’ve never done something like this.”

“So,” Gabby replied.

“Come over here and sit down. Talk to me.”

Gabby slowly walked over to the end of the bed where her mother was sitting. She sat down and looked at the floor. She could feel her mother looking at her. Very softly and calmly her mom said, “So, what’s up?”

Gabby shook her head.

“I know it’s not nothing. There is obviously something bothering you, and I would like to know what it is so that I can help.”

“I don’t want to go to school,” said Gabby.

“Well, why not?” mom asked.

“Because, if I go everyone is just going to make fun of me and call me names.” Her voice began to crack. A tear slowly emerged from her eye and trickled down her cheek. “I hate sitting there while they say mean things about me,” said Gabby.
“What kind of things do they say?”

“They call me fat, ugly, showoff, gay, unwanted, and anything else that will hurt my feelings.”

“Why do you think they say these things?” mom asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe, I am,” she replied.

Tears streamed down her eyes like waterfalls as she continued to look down at the floor.

“Look at me,” said mom.

Gabby slowly and hesitantly lifted up her head to look at her mom. Her mom looked at her directly in the eyes and said, “Gabby, you are beautiful. You are intelligent and a wonderful person. They are just saying it to make you feel low, because they wish they had something you have that they don’t. Don’t listen to them.”

Gabby stared at her mother and then looked back down at the floor. “If they are trying to put me down they are doing a heck of a job doing it.”

“Why do you say that?” mom replied.

“Because I feel low as dirt. I feel like a nobody. There is probably no one in the world who can make me think otherwise right now. I’m just a fat, ugly, no good, lower than dirt, nothing.”

“No, you are not, and don’t say that,” replied mom.

“Why not? Everyone else does.” said Gabby.

“Who cares what they think?” mom asked.

“I do. I care a lot,” she replied.

“Well, since you care so much about what other people think this is what I think. I think they are wrong. You are beautiful and a great person. If you believe those other people, and let them hurt you like this then they will continue to do it. I know that you are stronger than you think, and I love you. I think that’s enough with what I think. What do you think?”

“I don’t know” she replied.

“Well, you think about it, and let me know. Look at me.”

Gabby again slowly and hesitantly looked up at her mother. Gabby’s mom hugged her and softly whispered in her ear, “I love you.”

“I love you too, mom” she replied.

Before she knew it, Gabby felt safe and warm in her mother’s arms.


This is a story about how name-calling affects a person. Some people may think that it’s no big deal, but in reality the person who is being called a name gets abused not physically, but mentally and emotionally. I wish that people would think about what they say before they say it, because when they don’t someone gets hurt.

Thousands of students don’t go to school each week in the United States because they are picked on. This is one of the bad things name-calling produces. Students and teachers can stop this.

To help stop this problem, the Eastside Leadership Team here at Washington will be addressing this problem during “No Name-Calling Week.” We will be doing things such as interviews, posters, and skits, which will be posted and broadcasted for the entire school to see. We hope that students will realize that name-calling is a serious issue, and hopefully will choose to stop calling others out there names. We know that this won’t stop everyone, but it’s a start.