A Chicago first-grader has stirred the global online community into action over a case of schoolyard bullying.
The story of young Katie Goldman first came to light with the publishing of a ChicagoNow story early last week. According to the article, Katie, an avid Star Wars fan, became the victim of bullying after schoolmates teased her for carrying a Star Wars drink bottle, telling her Star Wars was ""only for boys"". Initially intended to shed light on the ongoing issue of bullying in schools, the story quickly went viral.
The original story attracted nearly 1700 comments and more than 11,000 Facebook ""likes"". On Twitter, users began tweeting with the hashtag #MayTheForceBeWithKatie and follow-up stories soon appeared on starwars.com and mother"s help site mamapedia.com.
Katie"s story has even led to a Facebook event dubbed ""Support Star Wars and Geek Pride for Katie"". The event asks all attendees - there were 615 as of yesterday - to ""wear a Star Wars tee shirt or any other piece of paraphernalia to show that you support Katie, Star Wars, anti-bullying, or at the very least, cool water bottles"" on December 10.
And according to the Chicago Tribune, all the web support has made a difference to the young Star Wars fan, with Katie now carrying her Star Wars drink bottle at school with pride.
Image Credit: ChicagoNow