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Scary Guy wraps up Austin visit

Published 6:30pm Saturday, November 12, 2011
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After spending two weeks working with Austin students, the Scary Guy is moving on to encourage kids in other towns, but this might not be the last time Austin sees him.

Danielle Borgerson-Nesvold, Community Against Bullying chair, said CAB wants to bring Scary back for teacher training.

“We are definitely looking into bringing him back,” Borgerson-Nesvold said. “He helped us with our mission to change the climate in the school.”

Now that Scary is leaving and the school district must combat bullying on its own, CAB will distribute curriculum about bullying prevention to all of Austin’s schools and to the Austin Bruins.

“Now it’s up to us to carry on that message,” Borgerson-Nesvold said. “We’re not perfect human beings, but there is a simple message that we can be spreading — showing love and compassion to everyone, even if they are name-callers.”

Borgerson-Nesvold said teachers and counselors have told her they want more training regarding how they should handle bullying if they see or hear it.

“The next time (Scary is in town) would be more training of the adults that have a good connection and influence with the kids,” she said.

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  • cooper

    Really what teachers and counslors are you talking to. Most of the teachers that I have talked to find him offensive and inappropriate. Having sat in on some of his meetings and hearing him call teachers names in my mind, he is a nothing but a com artist. Giving him credit he did take this town for 20,000 dollars plus. Yep lets bring him back and give him some more of this towns money. I do like the Bruins hockey team talking to these kids. Lets spend the money on them and get the local sports teams involved more that what they are. Just an idea.

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    • motherof4

      Thank you so much for posting this. I am so glad that he is gone. I am tired of hearing about him. No nick names, needing 16 hugs a day to be normal, come on buddy get a life. I do agree that he is a con artist as well. I am just glad that I did not donate to CAB. Where I think her heart was in the right place her head was not. Did anyone try and get someone in for free that the kids would also relate to?

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  • Lebowski

    $cary knows a sucker when he sees one.

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  • marian.clennon

    Did any of you listen to any of his talks? Did any of you get to see how the kids reacted to him? Did any of you meet him? And hugging is a bad thing? wow.

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    • motherof4

      I did not say hugging was bad, but a child being told they need 16 hugs a day to be normal that is bad. I saw all of that how awesome the kids thought he was, but I am not a child and am not persuaded by a con

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    • Jess

      EXACTLY Marian!! I agree with you and if you didn’t go to any of his presentations or even sit down and talked with him you have NO RIGHT to JUDGE! Danielle and CAB rocked our children’s world by bringing Scary to town and it was your choice to donate or not!

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      • Lebowski

        Wrong again Jess. The school district paid part of the tab to have $cary come to Austin. That means that every taxpayer paid for part of this scam. That money is gone now and we are left with 16 hugs, 7-day pledges, and a bullying problem that hasn’t been addressed.

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    • Lebowski

      Not if it ends at a hug, but if the hugging leads to inappropriate touching or groping in our school hallways then it is a problem. Marian, you’re smarter than this.

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    • ChicagoStyle

      Hugging in some schools is banned as PDA. Now you want to promote it. The only ones that get anything out of this guy being here are those that don’t need to hear it in the first place. Just preaching to choir. And no, I didn’t not see him and listen to what he had to say so feel free to disregard my opinion if it makes you feel better. But please don’t bully me for my opinion.

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  • cooper

    Marian and Jess yes I did talk with this guy, and yes I did see his “presentation” where he called teachers Hon and babe in front of students. My son came home from one of his presentations and asked me if it was ok to call women hotties. Yep he taught my son all kinds of stuff. You can keep him and I hope that Minnesota follows the other 6 states that have banned him.
    This gentleman has no crenditals to be talking with kids. I think this guy needs to go back to where he came from and stay there.
    I do belive that there are plenty of sports figures here in Austin that could do a better job than this con artist. Lets use the Bruins for an example.

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    • soothsayer

      There is no bigger influence in a childs life than a parent. Bringing the scary guy in is over the top way of dealing with a problem. It’s parents not wanting to talk to other parents when their child is being bullied. Daniele herself ran away from the problem when she pulled her kid out of school when her child was being bullied. That is exactly what a bully wants. They want you to be scared, they want the attention. And i won’t even charge you 20,000 for that advice.

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    • Lebowski

      Sports figures are not the answer here. Our Minnesota sports figures have not been good examples for our kids. That includes the Bruins.

      Better parenting and increased supervision is what we need. Some of the worst bullying happens online on social media sites like Facebook. This bullying is taking place right under the noses of many of these people involved in the CAB group.

      You’re supposed to be 13 years old to be on Facebook, but there are thousands of kids far younger on Facebook. Recently on Facebook there were 8- and 9-year olds taking the “How Sexy am I?” quiz and having other elementary-aged kids answering with inappropriate responses. This is all happening on the computers and smart phones the parents have purchased, but don’t supervise.

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  • cooper

    Well said soothsayer.

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  • Lebowski

    My family attended 7 of $cary’s “shows”. You can’t get a full grasp of just how unprofessional and ill-prepared this man is unless you see it for yourself. The inappropriate comments and content were a common part of the “shows”. The “shows” lacked substance and practical ways to deal with bullies. Instead the kids were told to get their 16 hugs and take a 7-day pledge. These feel good band-aids don’t even come close to addressing the problem of bullying. Face it Austin, you were duped.

    Why would we have a person with no credentials training teachers and counselors? Would we spend thousands of dollars to bring in a layperson to train the police or fire department? This man has no background training in the subject matter.

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  • marian.clennon

    I would like to invite anyone who has ideas and solutions to come to a CAB meeting. I would love to hear your ideas. The meetings are open and have been open to anyone who wants to attend. If you are not a part of the problem, please become the solution.

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    • Rhino

      here’s a thought… teach your kid to slap the crap out of the kid that bullies them. Worked for hundreds of years before society went all soft, worked for me 30 some years ago. And skip the violence is bad speech. look at society today, obviously what we are doing now isn’t working. DUH!

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      • justathought

        As a grandparent I went to see what the man had to say. I walked away from the second day knowing that there were ways that I could react to things differently. I’m not saying that it’s not all common sense, but sometimes we all have to be reminded that there are better ways to handle things. and judging people by how they dress or look,or just because they aren’t like we think they should be is one of them

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      • Pigtown

        You hit the nail on the head Rhino. The softer society gets the bigger problem bullying will become. Not saying we have to go around slapping the tar out of each other, but kids should be able to stand up for themselves. It’s a well known fact that bullies who get a taste of their own medicine aren’t bullies after getting a taste.

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  • mightym

    Both of my children saw the Scary Guy on separate occasions. The older of the two said “usually when I leave the auditorium after a speaker I come away with something useful, something I didn’t know before. This didn’t happen with him”. The younger one actually said they thought that he was a bully because picked on kids that were either really big or really small which made the other kids laugh at the students. They had friends there when we talked about him and the friends agreed with them. My point is that I have two children that weren’t impressed with him. That tells me a lot.

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  • momof4

    I think this was a waste of money!!! I have children in three different schools and they all were not impressed with the presentation they said it was not what they thought it would be at all. I guess getting 16 hugs a day is not top priority I hug my children don’t get me wrong BUT I also TALK to my children to let them know that I love and care about them and ask them what has happened in their day!! Maybe if parents talk to there children instead of having someone else do the talking there wouldn’t be such a problem??????

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  • Vanilla

    GLAD HE IS GONE! WASTE OF MONEY AND RESOURCES! TEACHERS DONT GET CAUGHT UP IN HIS ACT! DONT HAVE HIM COME BACK! YOU ALL ARE CAPABLE OF DOING YOUR JOB WITHOUT HIS “COMMON SENSE” TALKS!

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  • leftthehatebehind

    Ending bullying can start with the parents… if parents taught their kids this was not good behavior, and taught them how to treat people in the first place, much of it would not happen. Sure, other kids influence others, but it comes down to what your parents have taught you and the difference between right and wrong. If you have learned good values from them, they will know better. Often times a bully is being bullied themselves by someone else (like a parent, etc). That is where they learn the behavior.

    And slapping down a bully is not going to solve problems either….

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  • motherof4

    As for attending a meeting and you wanting to hear our thoughts and ideas why? You have shot down and came back negatively at anyone who does not love and admire Scary. If we are not part of the problem you only want to hear from us. Sometimes the answer is in the problem. Maybe you want to hear from people who are bullies or were bullies to find out why they bully. Jess you are JUDGING us just because we dont agree with you.

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    • Jess

      In reply to motherof4, UMMM not judging or being a bully. Let me know when you see me judging you and we can talk!

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      • motherof4

        What are you talking about. I do not understand. We the people and the parents do not have the right to our thoughts feelings and opinions and who tells our children things. You are judging us possibly even being a bully to us who do not agree with Scary or your thoughts and ideas. If a person feels liked they have been bullied it doesnt matter if the other person thinks that they were being a bully it matter what the first person thinks and feels. And I do strongly feel that there are bullies involved with CAB. Personally I do not want to talk about this with you because I do not want Scary shoved down my throat anymore than he already has been.

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  • rosebandit

    Was I the only one in Austin who was surprised to learn that $20K of our money was spent on info-tainment? Somehow a decision was made to bring an entertainer to Austin to talk to our kids rather than invest the money in proven strategies to prevent bullying. Who made this decision? Who authorized it? Come on folks, this really evokes questions of credibility on the part of those who make decisions for the school district, particularly with wise allocation of resources. Those responsible for approving this expenditure need to be held accountable.

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    • motherof4

      No a lot of people were surprised by the cost but the money was raised by fundraising

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      • Lebowski

        Rosebandit, you hit the nail on the head with your comments. The punchlin3e to this bad joke is they want to do this all over again next year. $cary knows a sucker when he sees one and he views Austin as one big repetitive payday.

        Mother of 4, it was not all donations. The school district paid part of the bill as well. Your tax dollars paying for the info-tainer.

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  • iowa hawkeye fan

    Can the people of Austin do anything right? Both my children said the scarey guy used inappropriate language and they were not impressed with him at all. I did not even bother going to the presentations because just by looking at the guy…. I was not impressed…..I do agree bullying is a problem at school, but the problems need to be addressed by responsible parents at home and they need to let their children know that consequences will happen if they do not treat other people as they would like to be treated…it is as simple as that….. priveleges will be taken away if you don’t behave and act resonable.

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  • The Truth

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    There is no sense in arguing now….20k is gone. From here forward, if you dont like how CAB (comm against bullying) spends the cash, then DO NOT donate money to them.

    If the school system is donating money, then talk to the board and have them remove that employee.

    Gotta go grassroots….. I’m thinking of starting my own group. Citizens Against Wasting Taxes….who’s in!?

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  • studentschpeel

    As a student I was EXTREMELY unimpressed with Scary Guy. I agree he was not worth $20,000, but to put it from a different perspective other speakers charge $4,000 for a single talk. Scary Guy came for 2 weeks, talked at all of our schools, ate lunch everyday with a smaller group of students, and even had one-on-one sessions with students. it’s over and done with now and it would have done more good to complain about price before scary guy actually came.
    Honestly, if more parents had good values and did not judge others,whether it is intentional or not, we wouldn’t need scary guy. but we’re still all human beings and can’t be perfect.

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  • ruserious

    Wait a minute…. the school district allowed this yahoo to be alone with students… one on one?

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