University Of Tennessee Marching Band Sports T-Shirts Made By A Bullied Fan

Sep 18, 2019 by apost team

Bullying has become a major issue in recent years. Although it's nothing new, with the rise of social media, bullying can now reach much farther than it did in the past.

For one 4th-grader in Florida, the reality of bullying hit a little too close to home. The boy is a big fan of the University of Tennessee football team. When it came time to show his football pride for college colors day at his school, he, of course, chose the orange and white of his favorite team, the University of Tennessee as his teach Laura Snyder described in a Facebook post. 

"We discussed that he could wear an orange shirt to show his spirit. He told me every day leading up to it that he had an orange shirt that he was going to wear," Snyder wrote on Facebook.

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Although he didn't have an official University of Tennessee t-shirt, he made his own by pinning a white piece of paper with the U.T. logo hand-drawn on it. However some students decided to mock his shirt. "Some girls at the lunch table next to his (who didn't even participate in college colors day) had made fun of his sign that he had attached to his shirt. He was DEVASTATED," Synder wrote.

Snyder's facebook post went viral and made its way all the way up to the University of Tennessee. The university took the boy's shirt and made it an official school design, they told CNN they have taken more than 50,000 pre-orders. Another heartwarming action taken by the University is that all the profits made from the shirt will go to the charity Stomp Out Bullying.

Some of the first to wear the boy's design were none other than the University of Tennessee's marching band, The Pride of the Southland. Members of the band wore the bright orange t-shirt under their uniforms during Saturday's game against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. University of Tennesee went on to win the game 45-0, crushing the visiting team.

Snyder who originally posted the viral Facebook story says the school is using the bullying incident as a critical moment to talk about kindness and compassion. She says several students have since gone on to perform random acts of kindness and she hopes the positive message spreads to other schools.

As a reward for his hard efforts, the University of Tennessee also presented the boy with a 4-year scholarship for when he graduates in 2032 according to CNN. 

Do you think the teacher did the right thing by bringing attention to the issue of bullying? If you feel strongly about bullying and want to help, start by passing this story along.