A little boy’s story recently went viral after his teacher shared it on Facebook. The teacher shared that the student’s peers made fun of a design he created for t-shirts for his school’s “college colors” day. He’s only in 4th grade.

“Last week, my elementary school participated in college colors day,” the teacher wrote. “When I told my students about this day a week before, this particular child came to me and told me that he wanted to wear a University of Tennessee shirt, but he didn’t have one. We discussed that he could wear an orange shirt to show his spirit.”

“He told me every day leading up to it that he had an orange shirt that he was going to wear,” she continued to write. “So when the day finally arrived, he was SO EXCITED to show me his shirt. I was impressed that he took it one step further to make his own label. After lunch, he came back to my room, put his head on on his desk and was crying. Some girls at the lunch table next to his (who didn’t even participate in college colors day) had made fun of his sign that he had attached to his shirt. He was DEVASTATED.”

She went on to explain that while she understood kids can be cruel, she thought what the child did was particularly admirable and did not deserve such a harsh reaction.

Little did the teacher and her young student know, his shirt design would soon become a symbol for anti-bullying everywhere, and the University of Tennessee marching band would even wear it loud and proud.

The band is called The Pride of the Southland and they rocked the shirts under their traditional uniforms at the Volunteers’ 45-0 win over the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

The university made the little boys’ design their official school design and even shared that they have taken over 50,000 preorders. To make it even better, all profits from the sale will be donated to the charity called Stomp Out Bullying.

But wait, the deal gets even sweeter (if you can believe it)! The school even went as far as to offer the child a four-year scholarship beginning in the fall of 2028, if he chooses to attend and meets admission requirements, of course.

The little boy’s teacher posted updates to her Facebook story after all of this went down. “High fives, hugs, pats on the back could be seen from the kids. This experience is uniting my class even more than I could have imagined, and it was truly amazing to witness!! The Vols spirit was definitely felt In my classroom today! THANK YOU so much so all who have made this such a positive experience for my student, and also showing the rest of my class what it’s like to come together and be kind.”

The school also sent a care package with tons of merch.

She continued with another update after that: “We’ve had lots of discussions about being kind, and I’m really excited to see my students step up their acts of kindness.”

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Source: ABC News