From bully to advocate: Michael Bowen shares his story to raise awareness about cyber-bullying

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — For Michael Bowen, bullying has sadly long been part of his life.

Currently, the head coach of Hoggard’s girl’s tennis, Bowen gave several presentations about cyber-bullying to students on Tuesday.

He admits he was a bully when he was a middle school student, thinking doing it would keep his so-called friends happy.

“It was pathetically making fun of two autistic kids and I, I had low self-esteem and I chose friendship over common sense,” Bowen said.

In 1985, Bowen was paralyzed from the neck down following a car crash, ending his tennis career at UNCW.

Over time, he learned to walk again, becoming a teacher and tennis coach, while working to inspire others who were disabled like him.

Despite his best efforts, he was left with a noticeable limp, and eventually, the very bullying Bowen had handed out as a kid, began coming back on him.

“Going through a devastating accident and becoming disabled myself and then having a career of being a teacher and a coach and being teased by students and on social media,” Bowen said. “So I have lived the life of a bully and I’ve certainly lived the life of being teased and made fun of.”

Now, Bowen is using his experiences to help teach students that bullying in-person or online is not okay.

The students who are hearing Bowen’s story said they appreciate his honesty in sharing what he had done.

“I liked how he talked about it and I liked that he wasn’t shy about what he did as a kid and his part in it,” Kennedy Tobias, a Hoggard 9th grade student said. “I feel like sometimes when people talk about their own experiences, it’s very one-sided so I liked that it was very, like he tried to share all sides of the story.”

Bowen hopes parents become more involved and knowledgeable about the social media platforms their kids use, so they can help them if they ever become victims of cyber-bullying.