Freshman Kellen Broeckelmann was used to getting verbally and physically bullied during his middle school days. As a student at Mission Trail Middle School, especially in sixth grade, he was a rather small kid. Broeckelman witnessed, as well as experienced, a large amount of bullying including being shoved into a locker at one point.

He also remembers, however, the day someone older than him decided to say something about it. He doesn’t remember the name of that kid, but they did talk several times after that day when he stood up for Broeckelmann and told his bullies to move along. That upperclassman is now a junior at Olathe Northwest and the two boys still keep in touch.

That experience, for Broeckelmann, had a domino effect. Years later, when he was in eighth grade, he saw a sixth grader getting picked on in the same way that he used to. Remembering what a certain upperclassmen had done for him, he intervened for the sixth grader. The two boys continued talking after this and eventually became good friends.

“He’s still my really good friend. We hung out over the summer and surprisingly he’s a biker like me so we go biking all the time,” he said.

In middle school, Broekelmann found out about a club at Mission Trail called Stop Bullying. He helped make posters and raise awareness to stop bullying along with many other kids in the group. In high school, he wrote about his experiences in being bullied and being stood up for in an essay for a Martin Luther King project about ending silence. He continues to use his voice to inspire people who were like him.

Along with biking, Kellan Broekelmann is a runner and is about to do his first triathlon soon. He is in marching band and theatre at Olathe West, and says that both are like families to him.

He would like middle school kids who get bullied to know that it gets better. He has a very positive outlook on life and is having a great career as a freshman. He would also like them to know that they should stand up for themselves always and others as well and that will usually be enough.