Most teenagers are preoccupied with having a good time in school. They hang out with friends. They play sports.
Three teenagers, Miles Rodriguez, Scooter Terrien and Chase Vazquez of Lincoln Middle School in Kenosha, Wisconsin, do those. They love hanging out together and playing basketball, even when theyโre not practicing or playing for the school team.
They do almost everything together. Thatโs why some of their schoolmates call them the Three Musketeers.
One thing they also do together is stand up to bullies.
Thatโs what they did when they confronted the kids from the other teamโs crowd, making fun of their friend and schoolmate, Desiree Andrews.
โDesiree is probably the happiest person I know,โ Miles Rodriguez described. โSheโs always smiling every time I see her.โ
Desiree is a cheerleader at Lincoln Middle School. She was also born with Down Syndrome.
Although she has a hard time communicating with her words, she loves to dance and cheer, which made her a perfect member for the cheerleading squad. And everybody really loved her.
But, since she was born with Down Syndrome, sheโs lived her whole life so far being picked on, teased, and bullied all the time.
Not at Lincoln Middle School though.
Everybody knows her name at school. Everybody cheers for her. They even named their gym โDeeโs Houseโ after her.
So when the Three Musketeers noticed the bullies heckling Desiree during a basketball game, they stood up for their friend.
It was a timeout and they were huddled around the coach when they noticed it.
โWe looked at it for a while to make sure we were seeing it correctly,โ Scooter Terrien, one of the boys, shared.
Desireeโs father, Cliff, is usually on top of things like that. But on that particular day, he didnโt notice what happened immediately because he was far away from Desiree.
โI have always been able to sit right by her and could put a stop to it immediately,โ Cliff said. โOn this occasion, however, due to an unusually high student turnout I was unable to do so.โ
But, it turns out, he didnโt need to do anything. The boys had it under control.
The boys broke away from the huddle and walked to the other side of the gym to confront the bullies.
โWe walked off the court and went to the bullies and told them to stop because thatโs not right to be mean to another person,โ Miles said.
On the other side of the gym, Cliff was shocked and speechless. He wasnโt sure what was happening at first. But once the shock wore off, he couldnโt help but cry.
โI was angry, angry at the fact that once again my daughter was confronted by others who felt it was OK to make fun of her,โ Cliff said. โWhen I realized what those young men did, however, my initial reaction was to break down and cry. This was the first time someone other than family came to her defense.โ
Miles said that when they confronted the bullies and told them to stop bullying Desiree, they did shut up.
Such a simple act that has touched many lives.
โI just did this to help her,โโ Miles said. โThis isnโt about fame. Itโs about doing the right thing.โ
Since then, the three boys have become Desireeโs unofficial bodyguards. And even when theyโve transferred to different high schools, Miles and Scooter are together in one school, and Chase and Desiree are in another, they still get together when they can. Chase, however, still escorts Desiree to her classes.
Cliff is still over the moon and still has hope for the future.
โEvery day we are confronted with such terrible things people are willing to do to others,โ Cliff said. โBut something like this gives a glimmer of hope for things to change for the better.โ
Watch the video below and learn about what the boys did for their friends in a feature video produced by Mike Bush and the Musial Awards.
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