Giada Oates isn’t going to be silent when it comes to bullies at her New Jersey middle school. She’s found a safe and effective way to ward them off and draw attention to dangerous behavior.

Back in December, she experienced a horrifying episode of bullying. A seventh-grade bully at Hackensack Middle School placed her in a chokehold and told her he was going to kill her.

“He said ‘You will die a silent death,’” she told CBS New York. “He was holding on so tight I think he actually meant you will die.”

Naturally, she was terrified.

“It was really scary. I was saying to myself ‘Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.’”

Those of us who have never been in her shoes couldn’t possibly understand what it feels like to be assaulted and have your life threatened in a place where you’re supposed to feel safe.

But rather than keeping the incident to herself (as, unfortunately, so many kids do), she made sure her mother knew. Then she took matters into her own hands.

“My heart sank. I burst into tears. And then I became angry,” said her mother, Toni Imperiale.

But Oates found a safe way to protect herself – she’s started bringing a whistle to school for protection.

It’s something meant to diffuse dangerous situations and also bring them to the attention of anyone nearby so they can intervene.

“It made me feel like I had more power over the bully, and it made me feel empowered,” she said.

And an empowered person is harder to make into a victim.

We don’t know the extent of the bullying problem at the school, but Oates told CBS New York that other students – mostly female – have asked to wear them as well.

And while it’s nice to see young women refusing to be harassed, it’s devastating to hear just how many of them feel they need to actively keep themselves safe while in school – a middle school!

Since Oates started carrying her whistle, her parents have purchased 90 more of them for her to hand out to her classmates.

“They told me, actually some of my friends told me, that without the whistle they would be lost, and they feel more safe with the whistle,” she said.

Young Giada Oates calls the whistle a way to draw “medium attention” to people who are trying to bully other students.

While she does feel significantly more safe with the whistle around her neck, she admitted to CBS New York that she still sees her bully at school and feels scared of him sometimes – a totally understandable reaction to having your life threatened!

Meanwhile, the school says it is unable to comment on the matter, issuing a short statement:

“While the Hackensack Board of Education cannot speak on this matter due to student confidentially, student safety and security is an ongoing critical priority.”

But at least Giada knows that if her bully comes near her again, she has a safe way to draw attention to the situation and make him back off. And the other girls at her school do as well.

Be sure to scroll down below to see an interview with Giada Oates and her mother about her unique way of blowing the whistle on school bullying.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: Inside Edition via YouTube, CBS New York