Actor Trevor Donovan visits Deer Lakes Middle School for anti-bullying assembly

Years ago, actor Trevor Donovan was an introverted, quiet kid who didn’t like to speak up.

He was on a ski race team, but he wasn’t very good. He was always holding the other skiers up.

Once, when the group was out skiing, he needed to use the bathroom. He decided not to say anything to the other skiers, and ended up urinating in his pants.

“It’s funny now, but at the time it was horrible,” Donovan said Tuesday as he shared his story during an anti-bullying assembly at Deer Lakes Middle School. “The rest of the season was awful. I was teased every single day and called all sorts of names.”

Donovan recalled how he wanted to quit the ski race team. His dad encouraged him to stick with it. By the next season, he was winning races. But he never forgot about the incident.

“While that year was horrible, I learned … to put myself in other people’s shoes when thinking about saying something to tease them because I’ve been on the other end of that,” he said. “If you feel like saying something to tease somebody or break them down, think about if you were that person and those things were being said to you.”

The Deer Lakes assembly, “Everybody Has a Story,” was meant to show the impact bullying has on people and how using social media positively can help combat that.

“It’s just talking to them about realizing what goes on behind people’s faces in their hearts, recognizing that we need to extend kindness to others and recognizing the damage that bullying can do,” school counselor Jackie Jaros said.

Donovan, who is known for his role of Teddy Montgomery on the international hit teen drama television series “90210,” reaches more than 8 million people a week across his social media accounts.

He uses social media to interact with fans, talk about the organizations he’s involved with and share pictures and videos of his dogs.

“Sort of my life goal and my work is to present a good example for kids like you,” the 39-year-old actor said.

Jaros organized Donovan’s visit. She won a Charitybuzz auction to have lunch with Donovan in 2016, and the two have stayed in touch.

Jaros said Donovan’s willingness to come all the way to Pittsburgh to speak at the assembly shows just what kind of person he is.

“This is overwhelming and amazing,” she said. “It’s hard for me to believe that a Hollywood actor would take time out of his schedule, fly across the country to do this.”

Students read stories of people who have been bullied and watched videos that showed the consequences of bullying.

They also participated in an activity in which they squeezed toothpaste out of a tube. After the toothpaste was out, they had to try to put it back in.

Despite their efforts, there were still remnants of the toothpaste on the paper plates they squirted it onto.

The same thing happens with words, Jaros said.

“When you say something to somebody, you may go to try to take it back with an apology or with your actions, but it’s out there,” she said. “It’s still on the plate. It’s still on your hands.”