Oskaloosa Elementary School students couldn’t believe their eyes Wednesday afternoon. Former Kansas University safety Darrell Stuckey was standing in their cafeteria.
“I thought it was pretty fun because I don’t meet a lot of KU players,” Dayton Morrissey, sixth grader, said.
It’s his story they really can’t believe.
“I was bullied when I was a little kid,” Stuckey said.
The NFL player was picked on in sixth grade for being small.
Stuckey hopes the kids will learn from his experience and know that they’re not alone.
“Kids always think that, I’m never going to get bigger, I’m always going to be this size,” Stuckey said. “It’s hard for them to picture an NFL player as being their size once before. So I made sure that they knew that I was the same size they were at one time. I was even smaller.”
Now Stuckey is playing for the San Diego Chargers.
The kids laughed when Stuckey said that same bully wouldn’t want to mess with him now.
“I thought it was pretty cool how he taught everybody about bullying and not to bully people because it’s not very nice,” Raegen Hamm, sixth grader, said.
Oskaloosa teachers hope with Stuckey’s help they can tackle bullying before someone gets hurt.
“I feel like they understood exactly where I was coming from. They know they’re not alone. It’s definitely a typical thing when you’re that age, but it can be dangerous too though,” Stuckey said.
