WWE Celebrities Visit Hope-Hill Elementary to Promote Anti-Bullying

OLD FOURTH WARD — Earlier this month, Hope-Hill Elementary School held a "Be a STAR" rally against bullying and the students were treated to a surprise visit by some of the biggest WWE wresting stars.

According to the Talk Up APS blog, "The students were ecstatic to meet the special guests and enlightened by their presentations regarding cyber-bullying, disrespecting others, name-calling, and more."

Be a STAR Rally participants included:

• Stephanie McMahon, Executive Vice President of Creative
• Diva Layla, WWE Professional Wrestler
• Kofi Kingston, WWE Professional Wrestler
• Hornswoggle, WWE Professional Wrestler
• Josh Mathews, WWE Announcer and Be a STAR Host
• Ben Cohen, Founder of The Ben Cohen Stand Up Foundation

One of the best exchanges of the day between the WWE wrestlers and the students was when top wrestler Kofi Kingston told the class that "being different is being great.” Paula S. Morris, M.S. media specialist at Hope-Hill, shared that the students started chanting Kofi Kingston's name after he told the class stories about how he was teased at a young age and called 'Coffee' instead of 'Kofi' growing up.

I can only imagine how empowering it must have been for the students to hear from such big and strong celebrities talking about times when they were smaller and bullied. 

A statement from Angela Fortson, a counselor at Hope-Hill:

“Hope-Hill has zero tolerance for bullying, and our goal is for Hope-Hill to be designated as a No Place for Hate school. We will achieve this by continually implementing programs such as the one today to highlight the need for anti-bullying, not only at our school, but for schools across the nation.”

Tickets were given away to Hope-Hill students to attend the RAW Event at Phillips Arena.