MOSS: New Albany man educates via experiences with bullying

CLARKSVILLE — Michael Crone asked who in the room knew a bully or a victim or a witness to bullying. Only a few hands raised.

Crone knew better.

He had been their age, at this very school. Things surely have not changed much, if at all.

Crone followed with a poem about a young man bullied, then acknowledged he is the poet. Crone was a victim. The boy in despair became the man who stood recently in front of two classrooms of freshmen at Providence High School in Clarksville.

Crone hopes to help. No one should go through pain like he did. Then again, no one should assume life will not get better.

“One thing I didn’t do, I didn’t give up,” he told the students. “I realized I was special.”

Crone, New Albany, is a 35-year-old husband and father of two, a master’s-degreed Humana employee and, for that matter, one of my wife’s nephews. We share kin who are terrific. They are not typically the first to put themselves out there, however. They don’t talk a whole lot about each other to each other.

So I was as surprised by the storyteller as the story. I did not realize what he had gone through or that he would feel comfortable, much less compelled, to relive it. I sat in recently on Crone’s seventh and eighth volunteer presentations, mostly at Providence.

Crone is ready, admirably eager, to speak up still more.

“I love doing it,” he told me between classes. “But it’s nothing I thought I’d ever do.”

Crone the Providence student was rather small and nowhere near self-assured. He was a face in the crowd, an easy target. Schoolmates called him names, over and over. Crone felt intimidated and pretty much worthless, Maybe these guys are right, he had told himself. He at least considered suicide. Four years of high school might end feeling like 40.

“It starts playing with your mind,” Crone said he recalls.

He finally spoke up at home, received warm, absolute support. Crone parlayed the love there to begin to believe in himself. College offered not only new surroundings but a fresh start. He felt valued as himself, at last. “I blossomed,” he said.

Crone makes sure to remind students that indeed, high school will not last forever. Little wonder his poem is titled, ‘The Light After High School.’

“I didn’t see the future,” he told the kids of the days he sat in those desks.

Crone’s message works because it is personal. It is triumphant. Crone is blessedly happy.

“It stunk what I went through but God does things for a reason,” Crone told the students, voice breaking and tears welling up. “I think this is my reason.

“If I help one of you all, it’s more than enough.”

Crone’s wife, Leah Crone, who teaches preschool at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, is understandably proud.

“He is so amazing for stepping forward and creating an open dialogue in a safe environment,” she said.

Michael Crone lets young audiences know their best is yet to come, as his wife put it.

“Most of all, he wants them to know that there is so much more to life than the condescending behavior of a bully,” she said.

Should students need reminding to lean on friendly shoulders, Michael Crone provides it. He passes along survival tips, as well as troublesome statistics. Most kids at least are around bullying. Many more need to try to stop it. Speak up. Tell a teacher or a counselor or some friends or a priest.

Crone cannot explain why he turned to poetry as therapy a year or so ago. Out of the blue, stanzas of words began healing him, helping him cope. Crone has written 11 poems. He intends to keep it up and someday put out a book.

Crone converts writing to speaking without hesitation. Judith “Jude” Manning, a Providence teacher, appreciates her former student revealing his survivor’s perspective. His pain his real, his advice tried and true.

“He comes across as very sincere and caring,” Manning said.

Manning recalls Crone the student seeming to struggle. But he resisted her intervention, she said. Manning calls Providence a great school but not one immune to life’s bumps.

“Kids are going to be kids,” she said.

One little girl, after listening to another of Crone’s talks not long ago, told her teacher she’s being bullied and needs help. “How awesome is that,” Crone said of the difference he clearly makes.

Crone offers to speak to other classes. Contact him via email at croneleoni21@gmail.com

— Send column ideas and comments to dale.moss@twc.com