People -- including gay teens -- shouldn't be bullied.
That's the message Batavia High student Kelly Jones wanted to get out today.
After reading about Oct. 20 being a "wear purple" day in remembrance of five gay teens who reportedly committed suicide recently after being bullied, Kelly wanted to get as many students at BHS as possible to wear purple today.
Many did.
"I feel bad for people," Kelly said. "I see it every day. I've bullied and I feel horrible about it. I just think it's a horrible thing and I just don't want people to be bullied anymore."
Kelly found out about the day through a Facebook group, so she sent messages to all of her friends yesterday -- three times -- and asked them to make sure all of their friends at BHS knew about the plan.
Principle Chris Daily said Kelly's initiative and so many students participating is typical of BHS.
"We have an extremely caring and giving bunch of kids at Batavia," Daily said.
"We're lucky here," he added. "We have such a diverse population in this high school -- the haves and the have nots, all sorts, that people are used to people being a little different."
Though students said the school isn't without its bullies, and they want it to stop.
"It's not right for here," said Kelly, who is on the far left in the picture above. "This is a small town and everybody knows everybody."
Cassie Warren said she wore purple today not because she's seen a lot of bullying this year, but she has in the past.
"(I wore purple) because people who are like gay and lesbian, they don't have maybe the right to speak out because everyone teases them," Cassie said. "It's not right, so I wanted to show them that people care."
Rebecca Truesell said it was moving to see so many of her classmates in purple today.
"I kind of related to (the gays who were bullied) because I've been picked on my whole life," Rebecca said. "It means a lot to me (that her classmates are wearing purple). When I saw all of the people, I almost started crying. All of these people care and it didn't seem like they cared, but they really do."