Former Dolphin Ronnie Brown Takes Anti-Violence Message To The Kids
MIAMI (CBS4) - Every week we seem to hear about incidents where teens acted violently toward other teens, sometimes with tragic consequences.
In an effort to get the word out that these types of acts have to stop, former Miami Dolphin running back/current free agent Ronnie Brown is getting up close and personal with high school students.
"We try to prevent these things that are happening in the school systems, where you get the shootings and violent acts toward one another," said Brown.
On Tuesday Brown teamed up with members of the Anti-Defamation League and visited Miami's Killian High School. Freshman Melissa Morin said she knows the 'battle of bullying' all too well.
"Ever since I was in elementary school I always got picked on for something," Morin said.
These days social media is playing a larger role in teen bullying.
"Unfortunately with these media outlets as Facebook and Twitter I think there's more of an opportunity to bully one another or cause these situations," Brown said.
"The hardest part was in middle school when they made a Facebook page about me. About fifty kids created it, middle school was hard," Morin said.
Junior Genesis Guerra's struggle with youth violence literally hits home.
"I use to bully my little sister. Every time I talk about it I still cry," Guerra said. "We had therapy and talked it out and I got to see her point of view."
Ronnie Brown, who was number 23 when he played for the 'Fins, is touring high schools throughout South Florida informing students on his 23 ways to stop youth violence.
While one of those ways is to walk away from an escalating situation, Brown doesn't plan to walk away from getting his anti-youth violence message out to as many kids as he can reach.
"It's giving them options rather than resorting to violence to handle their situations, (and their) problems with one another," Brown said.
