WEST BRANCH -- The sights, the sounds, the hits.
Friday night’s homecoming game at Ogemaw Heights High School was just like any other, except for all of those TV cameras.
16-year-old Whitney Kropp’s story of bullying brought the national media to the game Friday night as well students from other schools and towns nearly an hour away.
"We came here to support Whitney and show her that there are people out there that do care for her,” Alli Halladay, a senior at Cadillac high school, said.
"We didn’t come to bring attention, we came here to show her that we know bullies aren’t cool and we’re behind her 100 percent," Donna Georgieff, a senior from Tawas High School, said.
Kropp was nominated to the homecoming court as a joke, something that humiliated the teen at first, but instead of feeling sorry for herself, Kropp took a stand.
"Do not let these kids bring you down, stand up for what you believe in and go with your heart, go with your gut,” Kropp said. “That’s what I did and look at me now.”
That spirit inspired many as the community came together to donate Kropp’s dress, plus her hair and makeup. It also polarized some in this small rural town who think the whole thing was way over-blown.
"I think it has gotten way out of proportion,” Ogemaw Heights graduate Dustin Cobb said. “I know it’s bad, but there are worse things in the world right now.”
The Heights students declined all interviews but outsiders had no problem speaking their mind about the issue.
“It shouldn’t even be about the attention,” Georgieff said. “It should be about how bullying is wrong.”
Whitney did not win the homecoming crown, but the hope is that Whitney brought enough attention to bullying that this will not happen again.
