JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Angela Dixon is spreading the word about bullying and the tragic end it can bring.
"I noticed that he did start staying inside a lot more. He started shutting himself off and wanted to stay inside and watch tv. And I was wondering ‘why do you don't go outside no more?'" Dixon says these are the signs she overlooked before her son; Zaquan Bush took his life at just 12 years old.
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"It was because he was being bullied. He didn't want to be around anybody," explains Angela. Zaquan ended his life eight years ago. Years later, Angela's two other sons also started having issues with bullies. She's using their experiences to spread anti-bullying conversations throughout her community through her organization "Zaquan Bush Lives On."
"I had to do something to let the community know this is not how we want to raise our children. We want them to get along. We want to go back to the basics and tell our kids to treat people the way you want to be treated," says Angela.
Saturday she hosted the second anti-bullying picnic at Poindexter Park. "Maybe if I had known my son was getting bullied at school then I could have saved his life. so my point is if I come out, and I talk to other kids, maybe I can save somebody else child by telling them they should talk to their parents," says Angela. "I think this is what God wants me to do instead of sit up and cry all the time every year and mourn his death. he wants me to give back."