Parenthood
Kid bullied for his Tony Stark costume returns to school to prove that bullies should never win
"To put this in perspective, he was over the top excited about his costume… he couldn’t stop smiling when he left home. So to get a call from him sobbing and embarrassed just 20 mins later BROKE my heart," his mom said
D.G. Sciortino
11.03.22

When 10-year-old Evan Struckman dressed up in a sleek suit, oversized glasses, and a goatee for his Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, costume… he looked cool as hell.

Probably a lot cooler than the kids who bullied him for it.

Insecurity is a major reason that some people bully. So, they probably were intimidated by how clearly awesome Evan looked in his Halloween get-up.

Bullies are fearful that they won’t measure up when compared to others. So, they control others in order to keep their status and have a sense of self-worth.

These bullies were a total bummer because Evan couldn’t have been more excited about his costume that day. He and his mom put a lot of work into it.

All that work lasted only about 20 minutes after Evan was reduced to tears by his killjoy bullies.

Despite our belief that we live in an evolved society, bullying is still persistent in our schools, as we see in Evan’s case.

Toxic masculine mindsets that bullying is something that is trivial, just something kids do, or a rite of passage still persist today.

Despite the scientifically proven harmful long-term psychological effects on both the bully and the bullied.

We’ve even seen our children gunned down in school shooting after school shooting, where in most cases, the shooter was badly bullied.

Yet, schools are still dismissive of bullying, and parents still engage in behavior that turns their children into bullies. But why?

Perhaps, it could be that certain institutions, like capitalism, benefit from having a society where bullying in commonplace.

Evan’s mom Jill Struckman didn’t have time to ask these questions when she got a call from the school office explaining that her son was terribly upset. Her heart just “dropped.”

“This wasn’t physical bullying, no one stole his lunch money or stuffed him in a locker, but it still hurt his feelings… because WORDS do hurt! To put this in perspective he was over the top excited about his costume… he couldn’t stop smiling when he left home. So to get a call from him sobbing and embarrassed just 20 mins later BROKE my heart,” Struckman said, according FOX LA.

When she picked her son up from school, he just kept apologizing for washing off all of his makeup.

“He kept saying, ‘we worked so hard on it,’” Jill said. “He was really thinking about how I would feel, which tells you a lot about him.”

Evan’s classmates told him that he looked “stupid” and that everyone would “make fun of him.”

Evan left his home that day overjoyed to show off his costume.

He ended up defeated and feeling embarrassed.

Still, he chose to redo his makeup and go back to school for the Halloween party anyway. Evan chose not to let his bullies get him down and ruin his day.

“He was a little scared walking back into school,” Jill told TODAY Parents.. “But he had a great rest of the day. And he was so proud of himself. It was absolutely a defining moment in his life. If he hadn’t gone back, it would have broken his spirit.”

And mom couldn’t have been more proud either. Jill posted about the ordeal on Facebook where her post went viral.

You can check out mom’s original post below.

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