Bullied victim uses experience to help others

“The situation wasn’t handled correctly. They needed to be more passionate about the situation, even if it was a small or big situation they should’ve shown that they cared, that they needed to help, that they wanted to help,” Velarde said.

Velarde says the bullying continued and by December it had escalated.

“A girl pushed me, grabbed me, and threw me against the lockers and started choking me and I got away a little then she slammed me on a bench and started choking me and then I turned red.”

It was three months ago when a local mother reached out to KESQ/CBS Local 2 as a final plea for help when her daughter was being bullied at school. The family claimed the school district didn’t handle the situation well. Now 13-year-old Mia Velarde is using her experience as a bully victim to help others.

“They called me names and cussed at me, and they tried to physically harm me,” Velarde looks back at the first time she was bullied at Nellie N. Coffman Middle School in August of 2017. She claims the bullying went on for five months.

In November News Channel 3/CBS Local 2’s Lauren Coronado spoke with the Executive Director for student support services at Palm Springs Unified School District. She couldn’t comment on the specific incident but says the district takes bullying seriously.

She says she took matters into her own hands and spoke at a PSUSD board meeting, asking for better disciplinary standards.

Mia says the bullying stopped last month, but her work as a young girl’s ambassador for a local bullying advocacy group has just begun.

“I didn’t think that me going through what I went through would take me to so many amazing places and having opportunities open, many doors for me to go through.”

A community of followers are now wearing “Mia’s Journey” t-shirts in support of her advocacy.

Other people around me, other kids are getting bullied harder than I was and it’s leading to harmful situations that shouldn’t happen. I try to fight for it to stop all over.”

Mia was asked to take part in a bullying campaign project in Utah. She and her mother are making the trip next month.

We also reached out to PSUSD Sunday. A representative says Mia’s school was very active during Kindness Challenge Week, which is focused on raising awareness about bullying.