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Students (& Paul Rudd) Show Up for Bullied Boy with Empty Yearbook

When older students heard about it, they stepped up in a big way.

By Karly Wood June 6, 2022

The end of the school year means two things: long summer days and of course, signing yearbooks. Normally the tradition is a fun way to signal the start of summer, but for 12-year-old Brody Ridder, that wasn’t the case.

According to The Washington Post, when the six-grader asked his classmates at the Academy of Charter Schools in Westminster, Colorado to sign his yearbook, “they told me no.” When he brought home the book with just two signatures from classmates and two from teachers, his mother Cassandra was heartbroken.

She tells TODAY, “He’d written a note to himself. It read, ‘I hope you make some more friends,’ and he signed his own name.” Wanting to encourage change and promote kindness like her family does, Ridder shared a post on the school’s Facebook group page.

Brody, who has experienced bullying in the past, moved schools two years ago to get better support. But unfortunately, he still gets teased and sits alone at lunch.

But thanks to Cassandra putting on her mama hat and taking to Facebook, things are changing at the Westminster School. Along with replied comments to the Facebook post, parents of other students stepped up. By the next day, Ridder received a message from Brody.

She tells TODAY, “‘Facebook this…’ He had messages from eighth graders and even 11th graders. Brody’s exact words to me were, ‘This is the best day ever.’ Some kids even put their phones for Brody to contact them.”

In addition to the outpouring of support from older classmates, Brody is also getting extra love and support from Ant-Man. That’s right, Paul Rudd reached out to the incoming seventh grader to chat about things they both love: chess, fencing and dinosaurs.

Mom tells Tinybeans, “This has been an awesome experience. Brody is loving it, he wants the bullying to stop. He wants people to be more kind to one another.”

While Cassandra is elated that students stepped up in kindness, she wants to make sure the situation never happens to another child again. According to The Washington post, she plans to start and lead a schoolwide yearbook signing so everyone feels included.