Keaton Jones made us all feel this weekend.
Anger. Sadness. Rage. Heartbreak. Hopefulness. The compassion of the human spirit. The power of social media when it's used for good.
You name it, it was there. In Keaton's tears. In his story. In his confused eyes.
Keaton Jones, a Knoxville- area middle schooler, shared his story about being bullied with his mother. Getting teenagers to talk is tough enough; getting them to share this type of anger, embarrassment and despair is next to impossible.
This is Keaton Jones, he lives in Knoxville and he has a little something to say about bullying.pic.twitter.com/coyQxFp33V
— Everything TN (@Everything_TN) December 9, 2017
Sharing those innermost feelings can be life-saving, considering the number of suicides that come from bullying every year across the country.
Jones' mother recorded her son's emotional confession that included details of how the bullies at school make fun of how he looks and how he talks and even pour milk on him at lunch.
You may not know Keaton or whether Union County schools are closer to Knoxville or Nashville, and that's fine. But we all recognize that emotion in his eyes.
It was raw, and regardless of which side you were on - the picked on, the picker or the people who pretended it didn't happen - during your vulnerable middle school and teenage years, this is the school tradition every generation knows in some form or another.
Keaton's experience and wrenching words generated a tsunami of support. Megastars - NFL stars, rap icons like Snoop Dogg, pop stars such as Katy Perry, A-list Hollywood celebrities - have formed an alliance in #IStandwithKeaton. He has received invitations to be Dana White's ringside guest at a UFC event in Vegas, to be Hailee Steinfeld's date at a Hollywood movie premiere and spend Sunday with University of Tennessee quarter- back Jarrett Guarantano. (And yes, in the 865 area code in and around Knoxville, the starting UT quarterback is an A-list celebrity.)
It was a heart-warming response to a heart-breaking reality.
Yes, there also has been a growing social media backlash about Keaton's mom, who has social media photos of the Confederate flag on her timeline, but for once can we focus on the problem and not the periphery here? Keaton's mom is not the issue here. Keaton is, and so is the larger issue, which Keaton raised over and over in the under-three-minute video:
"Why," he asked. "Why?"
Keaton's issues in the short term have been addressed, according to the school principal.
"It's not as rampant as the video would have you believe," Greg Clay, the principal at Horace Maynard Middle School, told USA Today on Monday. "I can't tell you what was done, but I can tell you action was taken with the children."
The failures were not only his hollow words. They are with the episodic outrage that appears only when we learn about this type of activity.
Oh, we know it's there for too many kids in too many schools, but we only wring our hands and start hashtag movements when the covers are pulled back and we are reminded of the pain.
So let's flip Keaton's question, and ask why can't we stop this?
We need to know this is not a Knoxville-area problem.
This is an everywhere problem, and if you think the horrors that happened at Ooltewah and Grundy County high schools went from zero to hazing to sexual assault with stops in between, then you are either wrong or foolish.
Jay Greeson"We actually last week had a parent advisory meeting at the Hamilton County Department of Education and one of the main issues on the agenda was bullying and need to work in conjunction with the parents," new HCDE communications ace Tim Hensley said Monday. "This is a topic we were already addressing before [Keaton's video]. This is on the mind of the parents, and I can assure you it's on the minds of the folks here, too."
Hensley detailed the protocol and procedures. The system is in tune, but in truth, no one is ever fully prepared for this type of emotional time bomb to land in your Trapper Keeper.
There are anonymous tip lines at the HCDE website; concerns and questions are welcome, Hensley said.
Hensley, who has been with the department for less than a month after relocating here from Rome, Ga., hit on the single word - "Our entire society could use more kindness," he said - before offering the first step in the fight against bullying.
"Build a relationship with your child's teachers," he said. "No one knows a child better than his or her parent, and if you have that relationship before a situation arises, then it's much easier to go to the teacher and talk about some changes in behavior and whether they are seeing the same thing."
There's nothing easy about this. Nothing.
But the only thing worse than seeing the pain in Keaton's eyes and hearing it in his voice is the collective decision not to ask the simple question of why can't we stop bullying.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.