Making a cause out of bullying

By Alene Hill, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

If there's any good at all that resulted from the bullying (Alopecia World member) Myranda Watt has experienced, it is the establishment of the Casey Foundation devoted to preventing bullying.

"I didn't have to look far to know all about bullying first hand," said Montica Casey-Watt, Myranda's mother and co-founder of the fledgling organization. "It was something I could easily relate to and something I knew had to change."

Myranda, who is now 16 and lives with her family in Caseyville, was a seventh-grade student at Collinsville Middle School when symptoms of alopecia, a medical condition that caused her to lose her hair, first appeared.

"At first I wore a fake pony tail and people would try to pull it off," she said. "There were rumors that I was going bald."

Rumors continued, she said, and during the eighth-grade year, it "got so bad, people would not talk to me at lunch."

She left the school and enrolled at Cornerstone Christian School in Caseyville for the remainder of eighth grade. For ninth grade, she was home-schooled because she didn't want "to even try it," even though the move prevented her from participating in her favorite sport - softball.

Despite visits to several doctors, Casey-Watt and Myranda said, the hair loss continued.

"They said she would grow out of it, but they really don't know what causes it," Casey-Watt said.

Even more dismaying was the response of some people who encouraged Myranda to go without a wig, Casey-Watt said.

"But think about how much attention we pay to hair, how much we spend on it, and how difficult it is to face hair loss at any age, especially as a teenager in high school," Casey-Watt added.

For her sophomore year, Myranda enrolled at Collinsville High School. The hair loss had worsened, and Myranda wore a wig.

"There were so many rumors, that I had cancer - that I was contagious," she said.

She began going to Hair Club for Kids, a nonprofit organization that provides free hair restoration for kids who have hair loss resulting from illness, she said. The process they would use, Myranda said, uses bonding glue.

But last fall, one confrontation became physical with another student when Myranda said "the words flew and I couldn't stand it anymore."

Then, in October, two other girls attacked Myranda - this time at school and tore her wig off.

"The wig is not like the Halloween wig that just slips on," she said. "I was just in the process of beginning bonding and this wig had combs that were attached to hair that was just growing in - it pulled that hair out and it bled."

The girls faced disciplinary action from school officials and Myranda faced another challenge, returning to school, which she did the next day.

But Myranda, who is a junior this year, said the incident, in the end, "kind of did me a favor."

"I know I have matured through all of this and have one regret, I should have been open about it. I didn't talk about it" she said. "I had one friend I told and she moved away. After (the two girls attacked), I just want to tell people 'Yeah, I wear a wig."

She has also become more sensitive to "people who are bullied."

She also called her boyfriend, Mason Sykes, on the day of the attack to tell him.

"We met at the park. I cried and got it all out," she said. "He told me he already knew. I finally took of my wig and showed him - I was relieved."

Myranda has joined the high school softball team and her teammates were informed of Myranda's wig by the team's coaches.

"The coaches got everyone together and just said it," she said. "They hugged me."

Currently, she is seeing another dermatologist in O'Fallon, she said, who finally did a skin biopsy and found the hair follicles active - hopeful news for battling the illness.

In the meantime, the Casey Foundation is incorporated and waiting its not-for-profit status.

This Saturday, the organization will sponsor a Classic Car Show from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Caseyville Community Center, 909 S. Main St.

"I love old cars," she said.

Forming a foundation

The Casey Community Activity Foundation was started by Montica Casey-Watt and her friend Desiree Norberg.

"I knew we wanted to do something with children," said Casey-Watt, who is also an event coordinator at the Caseyville Community Center.

The focus of the organization - preventing bullying - became the goal when Watt's daughter faced bullying, after developing alopecia, an illness that causes hair loss.

This Saturday, the organization will sponsor a Classic Car Show from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Caseyville Community Center, located at 909 S. Main St.

In addition to the car show, craft fairs and food booths will be featured with all proceeds going to the foundation.

The foundation has begun work donating "Bully Free Oaths" along with notebooks to Caseyville schools at the beginning of the school year.

Dr. Jean Dayton, principal of both Caseyville and Hollywood Heights Elementary Schools said the message of the Casey Community Activity Foundation "goes along quite well" with the programs at the two schools.

The foundation distributed the "Bully Free Oath" and notebooks with "Be a Buddy, not a Bully" slogans to the two schools and the Cornerstone Christian School at the beginning of the school year.

"In fact, I had a student at Hollywood Heights who drew a picture with 'I want to be a buddy, not a bully' in it," Dayton said. "I took the picture and we're going to make it into a poster. It supports what we talk about and brings it into focus."

Dayton said she agreed with Casey-Watt that anti-bullying message is important to begin with younger children.

"Always, always, always - and every year," she said. "We cannot say it enough."

Other foundation members include Watt's husband, Rob Watt; her brother Rick Casey; and father Rick Casey Sr.

For more information, call 979-1723.