Tom Coverly. (photo provided)
A Florida-based comedian, illusionist, and motivational speaker will visit three Iowa schools this week to talk about bullying prevention.
Tom Coverly has appearances scheduled in Colfax, Iowa Falls, and Webster City. “I’ll be doing three school assemblies during the day, which is a bullying and suicide prevention assembly,” Coverly says. “Depending on age, if it’s middle school, high school, that’s what we focus on, and with the elementaries, we talk on bullying prevention. Then at night, we’re inviting everybody back for a full comedy-magic show.”
Coverly says times have certainly changed from when he was in school, as social media makes things much more difficult for kids today.
“I don’t even believe we even called it bullying back in the day, you know, it was like, ‘Hey, that person’s picking on me,’ and then we would go home and we wouldn’t have to face that bully until the next day,” Coverly says. “And what’s happening is kids, whether they’re on social media or not, they’re getting to school the next day and their friends are like, ‘Look what everybody was saying about you last night.'”
Bullying in person is one thing, but when it comes to cyber-bullying, Coverly says that’s what’s really pushing some kids to, in his words, “give up on the gift of life.” He says some will see suicide as the only way they can escape persistent bullies. “For years, I was contacted that the age of 11 was the youngest that I heard of that took their life, that I personally was invited to that school,” Coverly says. “In the last two years, I’ve been contacted about a six-year-old, a seven-year-old, an eight-year-old and a nine-year-old.”
He’s making appearances in Colfax on Wednesday, Iowa Falls on Thursday and Webster City on Friday. Learn more at: tomcoverly.com.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)