Sweethearts and Heroes Strategies Content 15 ‘Nobody cares’

Quite often, after Sweethearts and Heroes makes a school presentation, students flock to co-founder and lead presenter Tom Murphy — and this is no accident. When Tom and Jason Spector started Sweethearts and Heroes, they knew that their ties to the world of Mixed Martial Arts, and Tom’s career in the UFC, would engage students with what Tom calls “a delicious irony.”

“We hook ‘em so good, that they want to know me,” Tom says in this video segment below, one in a series of clips that are intended to provide teachers, administrators, students and parents with tips and strategies related to the Sweethearts and Heroes mission.

While at a school in northern New York, Tom was mingling with students after a presentation, when he noticed a female student alone, off to the side — “a small little thing,” as Tom recalls. When the kids were leaving for the buses, she stayed and chatted with Tom.

“Nobody in this school cares about me,” she told him.

After she told Tom her story — which included several suicide attempts, a mom that wasn’t in her life, and the impending death of the woman raising her — a teacher came out and yelled at her: “You missed the bus! You shouldn’t be out here right now!”

In this video below, listen to Tom and Jason discuss why this teacher confirmed this girl’s feelings (in Tom’s view), and teaching can be a challenge when students are in crisis: