No school-going child should ever go to school scared and intimidated every time they pass the hallway and enter their classroom. That is exactly the kind of stress and trauma that 10-year-old Giada Oates, a fifth-grader from New Jersey felt about a month or so ago until she felt the need to “blow the whistle” on the matter.
Stick around to see how this brave young girl is now standing up for herself thanks to a brilliant idea she came up with.
Who Is Giada Oates and What’s Her Story?
Giada Oates is a 10-year-old girl from Hackensack, New Jersey was currently in the fifth grade at the Hackensack Middle School.
Her bullying story escalated last month when she claimed that a student from the seventh grade put her in a chokehold and then whispered:
“You will die a silent death.”
Inside Edition reported that Giada at the time was terrified and said that it was “the scariest moment of her life” and felt completely helpless as well.
Giada said, “I was really scared, I mean I’ve never been choked that hard before so it was kind of surprising, but it was so tight that if he held on for any longer, I would’ve fainted on the floor.“
It’s one thing to bully other kids for their lunch money, beat them for their own amusement or just to make them the brunt of their jokes, but openly threatening to kill someone is a straight-up criminal offense.
Feeling scared, threatened and helpless, the first person that Giada had turned to for help was her mother, Toni Imperiale.
After being reported of this, Toni with an emotional inflection in her voice said:
“My heart sank, I burst into tears and then I became angry.”
What worrying parent or guardian wouldn’t?
The Solution
This is when Toni and Giada came up with an idea to avert this painful dilemma by arming Giada with a whistle.
Realizing she now had a fighting chance, Giada said:
“That’s when I wanted to have a whistle so that whenever you blow the whistle, you will call immediate attention to that person who’s doing something really horrible to you.”
From now on, Giada will be wearing her whistle around her neck whenever she goes to school.
However, a rep for the school informs local media that the Board of Education could not comment on this matter because of student confidentiality. Nevertheless, student safety is an ongoing and critical priority.
Inside Edition’s Mara Montalbano says that Giada still sees the boy she alleges bullied her at school and does feel scared at times still. But this time, they’ll be in for a big surprise should they ever repeat their actions against her.
Giada says, “It made me feel that I have more power over the bully and it made me feel empowered.“
It’s never a pleasant thought to know that a girl as young as her should be going through an experience as horrific as that. But it’s nice to know that she now has the means to protect herself should she be faced with another incident like that. Though it’s crucial for the school to take an even more decisive approach and suspend the alleged bully or even expel him if he doesn’t change his ways.
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