Ten-year-old Evan Vargo had a few questions for the kids at summer camp who thought it was funny to bully a certain girl.
"She had autism," Evan said. "They called her 'slowpoke.' They called her 'dumb girl.' "
Evan, who was bullied himself once on a school bus, walked up to the group and asked:
"Could we stop? How would you feel if people were making fun of you?"
Taking those steps was "a little bit scary," said Evan, of Andover. "They might punch you or say something mean. But when you start your sentence, they just back off."
And the girl? "She gave me a huge hug. It made me feel proud."
Austin Sween of St. Paul had a question, too. When the 11-year-old saw a girl being teased during lunch at his former elementary school, he asked her, "Are you OK?"
Then he walked over to the table of teasers. He said: "She is trying to eat her lunch. You shouldn't be doing this."