The assembly started with a video of a bullied teenager, Jonah Mowry.

The video was posted on YouTube in August 2011, and has had more than 10 million views now. Mowry, who was an eighth-grader at the time, is on camera throughout the video telling his story of being bullied since first grade on flashcards.

Later in several interviews Mowry said he had been torn down and tormented by peers for so long he didn’t feel like he could go on any longer, and that was why he made the video.

His video raised awareness of bullying and caused several district administrators to take a look into the problems in their own schools. Golden High School Assistant Principal Gretchen Shardy decided to bring the Olweus Program to her school over the summer.

“Last year hardly a day went by that I wasn’t dealing with some sort of bullying incident,” Shardy said.

The Olweus Program is about empowering witnesses of bullying to speak up and act when they feel someone is being treated unfairly. In a school setting the most common bystanders are students, so the iEmpower student group has been formed at GHS to lead the effort.

Blake Klis, junior, spoke at the assembly about his experience being bullied. He told students he had been called names, teased for being overweight, and the worst part was his friends and family were some of his biggest bullies.

“Sometimes the ones we know best can be the ones who say the most hurtful things,” Klis said.

Another student speaker and member of the group working to stop bullying was Shahpool Khorshid, freshman.

She explained how she had been teased for being Middle Eastern and for wearing a head scarf since grade school. Khorshid said her classmates used to call her a terrorist, but the worst part was when she was being bullied her friends would not stick up for her even when they were witnessing her pain.

“Now when I see someone getting bullied I’m not just going to stand there,” Khorshid said. “It’s horrible being the punching bag to everyone.”

The program also includes weekly classes during students’ study hall period. Classes are about respecting one another, and individual’s differences in addition to bullying.

According to Shardy, studies show the program takes about three to five years to make a difference in the school culture.