Titus O’Neil - Theres No Such Thing as a Bad Kid: How I Went from Stereotype to Prototype

Titus ONeil

With Paul Guzzo

There is no such thing as a bad kid.

Too often in our society, children are labeled based on their behavior, economic status, religion, or race. The stereotypes that go along with these labels can have a devastating effect. These kids can carry this stigma with them through adulthood, and they may even begin to believe that the stereotype is who they really are.

Lets talk about the stigmas and stereotypes that go hand in hand with the phrase bad kid. When kids misbehave in class, teachers, caregivers, and parents can be quick to dismiss labels more properly belonging to diagnoses of medical, emotional, or behavioral conditions. Instead, they reduce those children to two dreaded words: bad kid. The purpose of this book is to not only shed some light on many of the issues facing our children but also reveal why we must learn to act and talk in a manner that consciously eradicates the phrase. Bad kid should never be uttered again to describe a child.

I didnt write this book as a philosopher or a theologian. I wrote this book because I was once labeled a bad kid. Had it not been for the people in my life who supported me, and one man in particular who told 12-year-old me that there is no such thing as a bad kid, the words that you are about to read would be completely different if ever written at all.

This is not just the story of my past. It is also a tale I continue to share with youth around the world, with the hope of positively affecting both the present and future.

I want adults who were once labeled bad kids but had someone pushing them in the right direction, helping to get them out of a bad situation and providing them with much needed counseling, to relate to the stories in this book. We all have a duty to help those so-called bad kids when we encounter them, whether they are mirror images of ourselves or not. But I also want this book to be a revelation for those whose childhoods went smoothly. Do not judge a man, woman, or child whose shoes you have never walked in; instead, understand that the circumstances of someones life can affect who that person becomes.

I was once wrongly judged and labeled because no one took the time to understand my circumstances...

In the summer of 1976, Daria Bullard was raped in her St. Augustine, Florida, home.

She was 11 years old.

Her attacker was someone she knew.

She gave birth to a son in Boynton Beachs Bethesda Memorial Hospital on April 29, 1977.

You know me as WWE Superstar Titus ONeil, but thats just a character I play on TV. My real name is Thaddeus Bullard. Daria is my mom, and I am the product of that rape.

Though I obviously have no recollection of the hospital room in which I was born, I am willing to bet it was the nicest place I stayed as a young child. My mom was a kid herself; she did her best to raise me, but it was always a financial struggle.

I should have ended up in a much different and worse situation than I am in today. At a young age, I was regularly told that I would end up in prison or dead, and for much of my childhood, I was on a path to prove those people right. I fought too much. I screwed around too much. I yelled at adults too much. I didnt study enough. I was labeled a bad kid by too many people to count. I was living up to those low expectations.

Yet, as I write these words, I know that I am a good man and a success and neither has anything to do with my status as a WWE Superstar. Being a WWE Superstar is what I do for a living, but it is not who I am for a living.

I am a man who played football for and then graduated from the University of Florida. I am a man who went from troubled kid from the projects to elected vice president of that universitys student body. I am a man who every year makes sure that thousands of the Tampa Bay areas underprivileged kids wake up to presents under their Christmas tree and receive backpacks, lunch boxes, and classroom supplies before the school year. I am a man who relishes my job as a father and role model to two sons.

I am a man who proves that how you are labeled as a child does not have to define who you will become as an adult. I am a man who lives every day as proof that there is no such thing as a bad kid.

I want to spread that message to every corner of the globe. I am not a psychiatrist or psychologist, but I believe, with every fiber of my being, that we cannot shallowly state that a kid is bad and think that is that; I want adults to understand that we need to look deeper than a childs behavior. While its possible their financial situation may play a role in their actions, we need to look past that. Kids from rich, poor, and middle-class families can all share common problems. We have to look at their family life. We have to look at the educational barriers they may face. Maybe the child is getting bullied at school. Maybe the child has an undiagnosed learning disability. Maybe the child is physically or verbally abused at home. We have to take those issues and others into account. In doing so, we can transform the lives of countless children.

No child is inherently bad it is only until we understand why the child is misbehaving that we can help to remedy the situation. And if you are not personally equipped to help, find someone who is.

If someone was struck by a car in a hit-and-run accident in front of your house, would you look at that person and say, Id like to help, but Im not a doctor... and then walk away? Or would you call 911?

I might not be an expert in the field, but my life experience has given me a unique perspective. It is from that experience that I believe the following: Ignoring a child in need may suppress their hope for a better future. Helping to transform that child may open their eyes not only to hope but to a whole new world of possibility. For much of my childhood, I was called a bad kid period. Had no one stepped in to examine why I acted the way I did, perhaps I would have proven my naysayers correct and ended up dead or in jail. When I finally met people willing to see the big picture surrounding my issues, they realized I did not come from my mothers womb cursing and fighting. They understood I was reacting to my environment. They sought to understand the causes of my behavior and then realized I could be saved through a positive, structured, and disciplined environment. That was what gave me hope.