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His body is a colorful collage of body art, his face peppered by piercings, his hair and beard colored blue and shaved randomly. The Scary Guy visited Lossiemouth High School to lead a workshop with pupils and staff, which aimed to eradicate prejudice and perceptions among those taking part.

However, this is one man who perhaps does not live up to his name.
Scary has been traveling the world for seven years, spreading his message to eliminate anger, hate, violence, and death by encouraging pupils not to judge people and to speak out against bullying. He spent a day at the school giving talks and demonstrations with 420 pupils, hoping it would help to stop intimidation in the classroom and playground.

“It is a four-stage process, ” said The Scary Guy. “First, we make them aware what prejudice and perception are. We then let them understand why it happens. “We then show how to turn it around into acceptance and love.” Some pupils were overwhelmed by his inspirational performance. He began his talk by walking into the room and saying nothing. In a split second, there was silence as the children caught their breath. First impressions, it seemed, form a large part of prejudice.
“The whole programme is geared to changing this earth. The problem is a worldwide problem and by teaching them love and not to judge others, we are changing the way they perceive others. This stops prejudice.

“I believe everybody has a bully in them. There is no such thing as bad kids, there is bad behaviour.”

The Scary Guy – his legal name and the one he has on his passport – visits schools all over the UK, many states in the US and other European countries. In big demand, he has a tough schedule but does not mind because he believes what he is doing will help change the world.

“Racism, sexism, ageism and religious issues all account for what’s happening in the world. We have to break those barriers down, and that is what I try a difference, that is why we focus on the children. But you can’t forget the teachers, ” he added. To put his ideas into practice, The Scary Guy then set a challenge.

“There is the seven days and seven nights challenge where you don’t say a negative thing about any person for that time period. We put all the people on what he had achieved.

“I think that he made a great impression on the pupils. This was probably evident at lunchtime when the pupils were going round smiling and hugging each other, ” he added. “Everybody apart from the fourth years took part and I think everybody enjoyed his performance. “It appears that a lot of the children who had been involved in incidents of bullying had thought a lot about what was said.”

Ms Gifford revealed that Lossie High was looking to do some follow-up work and she was delighted that so many staff took part in the after-school session. “Thirty-two members of staff stayed and took part in a workshop with him and it was excellent, ” she said. “I am really pleased and would encourage other schools to consider this option. It has really benefitted the staff and pupils of Lossiemouth High.” to do in the first hour with these kids, ” he said. After initially challenging their thinking, he held teacher-free workshops to continue the thought process. At the end, he conducted a workshop with teachers. “It is the adults of tomorrow that are going to make this at the workshop. “This is not a job. It is a mission. From the time I wake up to the moment I go to bed, I am always thinking about changing the mind set of the world.

Scarborough Evening News:

A 20-stone American man whose face is emblazoned with tattoos and peppered with piercings would not be most people’s choice to talk to schoolchildren about respect and self-esteem. But The Scary Guy – which is legally his real name – has been called in by Pindar High School to do exactly that.

What’s more, in just one day the motivational speaker has not only got students and staff to sign a contract to promise they’ll say nothing negative about each other for the next week, but he’s also got the school’s most challenging children hugging each other as they walk through the corridors.

Headteacher, Hugh Bellamy said: “His visit was absolutely fantastic. It was one of those defining moments in life for a lot of our students and most of the staff too.” “He is very, very engaging. His wife started the session by playing the harp, none of the children had seen him and they thought she was going to be running the whole session.” “She then introduced her husband and when he came into the hall there were gasps of surprise and amazement. Very slowly and deliberately he poured himself some water with his back to the audience and they started chatting among themselves.”

“Then he turned around and hit them with his stare and there was absolute silence – you could hear a pin drop.”

The Scary Guy’s message is pretty straightforward. He wants young people to put prejudice and intolerance aside and show love and acceptance to each other. It might sound all a bit happy-clappy for the fearsome figure whose teeth are capped with gold crowns, but Mr. Bellamy says his attention-grabbing image is what helps hammer home his positive ideals.

“We have been on a journey from being a school where behaviour was out of control to a place where it is now controlled,” he said. “But we now want to get to the point where the students are controlling their own behaviour. We were really looking for somebody to be a figurehead to launch this, we came across some information on Scary and he was doing just what we wanted.”

The Scary Guy worked as a tattoo artist in Tucson, Arizona, but his life was changed forever when he saw an advert in his local newspaper by a rival tattoo artist. It said: “Are you tired of dealing with scary guys with war paint facial tattoos?” His immediate reaction was to question why he was being picked on and to try to get revenge on the person who placed the ad, but after a little soul-searching, he realized he was no better than his rival and decided to change his life by preaching about positive behaviour to young people. Since then he claims to have worked with more than five million people all over the world.

His visit to Pindar High School had such an effect that Mr. Bellamy has invited him back for a full week in September to work with more students and parents.

He said; “It is, quite simply, the most important thing I have done since I have been here.”