The students at Harbourside Elementary School in Sydney, Nova Scotia, got a wake-up call this morning they’ll never forget. Dozens of leather-clad bikers from clubs around town including the Cape Breton Bike Rally and Bay Boys Motorcycle Club rolled up to their school Wednesday morning to drop off Xander Rose, a fourth-grader at the school. The bikers’ message: Bullying in any shape or form will no longer be tolerated.
Dozens of bikers are lined up to take 10 year old Xander Rose to school. A show of support against bullying pic.twitter.com/O8W5IZc9dJ
— Kyle Moore (@KyleMooreCTV) June 21, 2017
For years, Xander has been bullied by other students for his weight and the leather bike vest he likes wearing. But recently, the taunts have become worse with students making racial slurs and suggestive sexual comments to the boy. “It’s been crazy. He’s gotten jumped on the bus; he’s had clothing ripped off his back. He’s been told to go die in a hole,” his mother, Katie Laybolt, told CTV.
Laybolt informed school administrators and other parents about the bullying, but nothing changed. So she contacted Defenders of the Children, a biker organization whose mission is to “fight against child abuse, physical, emotional, sexual and including bullying in all its forms.” The group put out a call on Facebook to their “brothers and sisters in Nova Scotia” to come to Xander’s aid.
After this morning’s display of solidarity between the bikers and Xander, it looks like things are going to change for him at school. According to Mike Basso, one of the ride’s organizers, Xander can now call on his new friends whenever he needs them. “His family has grown, I wouldn’t even say tenfold, I’d say thousand-fold,” Basso said. “My brothers in B.C. are talking about it out there. The message is getting out finally.”
Here’s Xander with his new friends, the Bay Boys Motorcycle Club.
[new_image position=”standard large” id=”572846″]
