Oklahoma Teachers, Students Rally Against Bullying At State Capitol

We hear about all too often, kids being bullied at school.

Kirk Smalley is taking the fight to the state capitol and straight to lawmakers.

Friday, on the fourth floor of the state capitol, teachers and students rallied together to stop a growing problem for good and ask lawmakers to provide schools better methods of bullying prevention, so it doesn't go unreported.

"It's obviously gotten a lot worse in the state of Oklahoma, we've had 10 kids kill themselves this year that I know," motivational speaker, Stand for the Silent, Kirk Smalley said.

Oklahoma father Kirk Smalley has been featured in the documentary Bully. He lost his 11-year-old son Ty, after he was bullied and ended up taking his own life.

"Ty's not being picked on anymore," he said. "We don't want another set of parents to go through the nightmare Laura and I have lived."

The Smalleys have been Coast to coast and border to border, spreading the word about what bullying is, and to try to stop it from happening to another little boy or girl. They've traveled to 475 schools and talked to more than 610,000 students.

Oklahoma kids at Friday's rally are ready to get more awareness started here.

"It's time we all get together and make enough noise to get something done about it," Smalley said.

Oklahoma has had bullying laws in place since 2002, but Representative Anastasia Pittman says it's not enough.

"It has very little teeth, it's not enforced. What we want to do is to have teachers, administrators, parents, students, joining together with one voice, one message stand for the silent and stop the violence," Representative Anastasia Pittman said.

A message, Smalley hopes resonates to the heart of Oklahomans and beyond.

"It's time to stop," he said.

Smalley and Representative Pittman say it starts with education and they hope legislation and money will be allocated to provide schools better methods of documenting bullying very soon.