Music to stop bullying by

BELLEVILLE – 

Last year, Belleville High School seniors composed poems on the theme of anti-bullying and one student urged business teacher Gerard Fabiano, also the school’s antibullying coordinator, to draft his own creation.

“It came out more like a rap,” Fabiano recalled. So the student suggested that Fabiano put some music behind the rap and that set a project in motion.

For the next “eight to 10” months, the instructor applied much of his spare time to sketching out the lyrics “and how I wanted the music to sound.”

He then traveled to Buffalo, N.Y., to meet with music producer Bill Boulden – known in the industry as “Spruke” – whom Fabiano had met as mutual participants in “Magic: The Gathering,” a trading card game – to make a recording.

As part of that process, Fabiano said, the pair partnered with Adam Ezegelian of Long Island – another “Magic” acquaintance who was a semifinalist on “American Idol” – to incorporate his vocals.

“It was me rapping and Adam sang the chorus,” Fabiano said. “Then Spruke and I put it together.”

But the process would not have been completed without the input of BHS mass communications teacher Ryan Sheridan and several of his students plus some alumni from last year’s senior class – to film and edit the video together with the music. BHS senior Elias Tapia was the camera operator and senior Christopher Andrade was the film editor.

“We all worked hard on researching the facts that went into the video – myself and the students,” Fabiano said. One point made, for example, is that every year, more than 3 million kids in the U.S. get bullied in one form or another.

A thorough grounding in the antibullying.gov website and discussions on the various ways that kids can be bullied, whether for cutting in line at a store, obesity, sexual orientation, online harassment and why it happens all contributed to making the final product the best it could be, he said.

“We also got support from Superintendent [Richard] Tomko and [BHS] Principal [Russell] Pagano [Jr.],” Fabiano added.

Thus was the “Bully Me This …” video born.

In the course of helping assemble the project, it was quite evident how Andrade really took the lessons of the video to heart, Fabiano said.

“This year, Chris played on the soccer team and I was an assistant coach so I saw how he exercised his leadership by encouraging other players on the team to show respect to all the players – so, for example, if [a rival player] was fouled, he would say, ‘Let’s help them up.’ He cared more about how to play the game as opposed to just winning.”

The music video – with a running time of about six and a half minutes – can be seen on YouTube and is available for sale on iTunes, Sound- Cloud, Spotify and CD Baby. Proceeds are donated to the Belleville High School Harass ment/Intimidation/Bullying (HIB) program.

At the end of the video, Fabiano and Ezegelian advise students who may have been the victims of bullying to report the incident to their teacher, principal and parents.

The video has been aired on the high school’s in-house production studio’s “Morning Show” and, so far, reaction has been favorable, he said. “A lot of people have come up and said, ‘That song stuck in my head.’ ’’

Fabiano is trying to arrange for a screening for Belleville elementary school students at a “bullying assembly.” He’s also been tweeting celebrities in hopes of enlisting their support for a local anti-bullying campaign.

A Belleville educator for the past three years who previously worked for the Princeton Review and Educational Service Center and whose mother Roseann is a special education teacher at School 8, Fabiano said that, for him, the video’s bottom line is: “We need to show respect for one another. In Belleville, teachers and students wanted to take a stand against bullying and we did it through the sound of music. We can help end this for future generations.”

To check out the video, visit https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=sccHgMxW720.

Bully Me This…

Bully me this bully me that cause bullying ends after this rap

I said bully me this or bully me that but bullying ends after this rap

You’re just a teenager you don’t see the big picture you think her sad face she wants to bring with her

So you post on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter every message sent another way to dis her

Show no respect you already know it all? You don’t need to be in class that’s why you out in the hall???

Plotting you scheming who’s your next target, here’s what you doing once the bullying started

Even words can hurt someone to the core so for you to be happy try and understand others, if someone else’s failure makes you smile then your insecurity is something no makeup can cover.

Try and see into your future then look back at your past hopefully you’ll see when someone falls it doesn’t mean you laugh.

Bully me this and bully me that cause bullying ends after this rap

I said bully me this or bully me that but bullying ends after this rap

Only bullies say “Move it stupid, you’re weak and useless”

Head down big frown

Eyes tear no one cares

Get to class in a hurry

Can’t see eyes are blurry

Picture posted

Looks atrocious

Retweets more beats

Need a friend when will this end

Bell rings not again

Be the generation that sets the foundation to end all bullying in this nation, we the generation that sets the foundation to end all bullying in the nation.

The other day up in Fabiano’s business class there was a kid who was tweeting some trash, I said it’s not good to bully but better to bond, the kid said Yo Fabs come on

Here’s a story from room 1-9-2-9 there was a bully who was spitting a line about a fat kid that was eating some fries, to my surprise the others joined with the lies

This is what happens with all this aggression this was like a classic straight oppression then the kid fell in a great depression but then Adam spit this valuable lesson.

That it’s in your best interest to tell the principal so no one ends up feeling miserable cause in the end you’ll find being a friend is the only thing that’s going to pay the dividends

Bully me this and bully me that cause bullying ends after this rap

I said bully me this or bully me that but bullying ends after this rap

Cause if you call someone fat now they won’t eat their food, call someone stupid they drop out of school call someone ugly man that’s just rude you have no clue what they’re going through, cause over 3 million students get bullied each year so let me make this abundantly clear

You’re either part of the problem or you part of the solution cause bullying is the ultimate pollution cause no matter gender everyone’s a contender, bullying’s not just a fender bender so don’t surrender cause there’s no need for ridicule or to be cruel just follow the golden rule

Treat others the way you want to be treated tweeted a mean comment man just delete it now put an end to all the he said she said nonsense and think twice about those hurtful comments.

Bully me this and bully me that cause bullying ends after this rap

I said bully me this or bully me that cause bullying ends after this rap

Bully me this and bully me that cause bullying ends after this rap

I said bully me this or bully me that cause bullying ends after this rap.