Jared’s
Story
Jared High was 12
years old when older students bullied him in his middle school. The
bullying came to a head when a well-known bully assaulted Jared inside
his middle school gym. Because of the bullying and the assault, Jared
began to show signs of depression, which included lack of sleep and emotional
outbursts.
On the morning of
September 29, 1998, just six days after his 13th birthday, Jared called
his father at work to say good-bye. While on the phone with him,
Jared shot himself, dying instantly.
As a healing project,
Brenda began to write Jared’s story, which is now published as www.jaredstory.com.
Since 1999, JaredStory.com has attracted over a million visitors looking
for information on bullying, depression, suicide and needing healing from
the loss of a loved one.
Brenda has now become
a passionate crusader, a mom on a mission to stop school bullying and peer-abuse.
It is not uncommon to see Brenda doing email or on the phone talking about
bullying as well as advising parents, students, teachers, state and federal
lawmakers, media and community members about the emotional and physical
dangers of bullying, which can lead to bullycide, (a suicide attributed
to bullying).
Producers from E!, Oprah, Good
Morning America, The John Walsh Show, CNN, Heraldo at Large, FOX NEWS,
The Larry Elders Show, Video Production Companies, Inside Edition, Jenny
Jones Show, Black Entertainment Television, News Documentaries, Radio Programs,
Associated Press and other numerous Newspapers, have interviewed Brenda
about "Bullycide," bullying, depression, suicide, JaredStory.com and BullyPolice.org.
Jared’s story has
been told on the radio, in magazines, including California’s Beach Cities
Health District, Arizona Parenting, The American Association of Suicidology,
Desert Paradise, and in numerous news articles. Brenda has also published
Internet Short Stories about JaredStory.com on several websites.
Brenda has designed
and continues to work on three websites that deal with bullying and suicide
issues.
http://www.jaredstory.com,
which deals with bullying, depression, suicide and other issues.
JaredStory is very popular with teens who are looking for direction and
advice for living as well as media research, as example, The Dr Phil Show,
who found two quests to talk on bullying and suicide.
http://www.bullypolice.org
- Reports and grades States on their anti bullying laws. Bully Police
USA posts current anti bullying laws, research, news, and support information
for parents and/or anti bullying activists who are dealing with bullying
in schools
http://www.thewoundedchild.org
- Tells the stories of students, parents and survivors of bullying.
Getting anti bullying
laws
Having been involved
in politics for over 20 years, Brenda leads by example.
Brenda’s specialty
is working to get anti bullying laws passed or revised. She is proud
of contributing to the passage of the Washington State Anti Bullying Law
(www.bullypolice.org/wa_law.html),
"Jared's Law" in Idaho,
(Jared's Law is named in honor or Brenda's son Jared), as well as
influencing passage of a law in Oklahoma, Vermont and Arizona. Bully
Police USA members have influenced passage of over a dozen laws in the
United States.
Brenda continues
to aggressively work with lawmakers and anti bullying activists in several
states to get more common sense anti bullying laws passed.
As the Director of
the national organization, Bully Police
USA, Inc., Brenda has recently written,
“The Perfect
Anti Bullying Law,” which is an excellent model for lawmakers to follow
when they write their State anti bullying laws. She teaches the importance
of anti bullying laws, and how to lobby, in teleconferences to educators,
media, program directors and parents, many who have children suffering
from bullying.
A philosophy to
live by
Brenda lives her
philosophy, which is; a woman filled with love is not content with blessing
her family alone, but is anxious to bless the whole human race.
Brenda lives in Pasco
Washington with her husband Bill. They have three grown children,
Sonja, Jacob and Tara, and two grandchildren. She has a Bachelors
Degree in Psychology from Brigham Young University.
For a more about
Brenda, go to http://www.jaredstory.com/brenda_author.html.
Jared's
Sister says:
