Kate Hackett
Last week, 10-year-old Evan went to school in his Halloween costume… Tony Stark!
Looks pretty damn great, right? He had Iron Man down pat.
His mom, Jill, even mentioned in a Facebook post that, “He only answers to ‘Tony’ or ‘Mr. Stark’.” Amazing.
But that enthusiasm waned quickly after Evan was mocked for his costume on the bus ride to school. The school clocked the bullying and gave Evan’s mom a call.
She wrote, “Got a call from Evan at school 20 minutes after he left on the bus. Apparently some kids on the bus (who weren’t even wearing costumes) told him he looked stupid. Evan got to school and immediately went to the bathroom and washed his face.”
Jill wrote about the events on her Facebook page and the post quickly went viral.
BuzzFeed reached out to Jill who said that when she got the call from the school, Evan was so upset that he did not even want to stay for the Halloween party.
“When I dropped him off that morning, he ran to the bus SO excited to show off his awesome costume. When I arrived to get him, he had washed his face paint off and looked defeated. I was heartbroken. He apologized for washing the goatee off and just wanted to leave,” she told BuzzFeed.
But, Jill continued, after a trip to Starbucks, Evan opened up and decided to not let the bullies win.
Jill wrote, “After going to Starbucks and talking through his feelings, Evan decided he didn’t want to miss his school party!!! So we went home redid his AWESOME makeup and matched right back into school!”
“Always have talks about bullying, especially this time of year when kids are dressing up and letting themselves be even more vulnerable. The messages of pure love and support from around the world have shown Evan (and us) that there are far more kind people in this world than there are bullies,” Jill told BuzzFeed.
The response from people online was overwhelmingly sweet and kind. Jill noted that Evan learned a valuable lesson from the experience.
Some online asked about sending Evan a card; if you want to do so, the address is PO Box 362, Cottleville, MO 63338.
