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Schools worldwide are paying as much as $6,500 a day to hire a tattooed, pierced and bearded ruffian with no credentials to impart anti-bullying wisdom to pupils, reports CNN.
The Scary Guy, once an average fellow who went by the conservative name of Earl, changed his name in 1998 and hit the road in an attempt to educate – “edu-tain” is the verb he prefers – school children about the evils of bullying.
To promote this noble cause, he uses tactics such as rubbing his belly, shouting, exposing his tattooed body, groaning and, of course, vomiting apples.
(MORE: Bully Is Good, but Knee-Jerk Responses to Bullying Are Not)
As Earl, he used always to find fault with “just about anyone”, verbally bullying those around him, or, as he puts it, “killing them with [his] words,” until he realized the pain he was causing and, much like the Earl of My Name Is fame, began trying to make up for his past wrongdoings.
His unorthodox stunts, which involve shouting abuse at people – this is the first time “geek in the wheelchair” has been used as a rallying cry for bullying prevention – has inevitably divided teachers into the camps of either awestruck admiration or hand-wringing regret.
The latter includes one Minnesota school principal who was shocked by Scary remarking “Oh, that’s the best sex I’ve had all day!” after shaking hands with a child.
On his officially scary website, Scary refers to himself with a whole array of lofty titles, including An Urban Dalai Lama, A Prophet of Peace and, in keeping with the religious tone, A True Light in the Dark, giving the bully’s habit of “calling names” a whole new meaning.