Atop his elliptical bike, Derrick Boles rode into the Heights with a message for students.
"People are sitting on the sideline instead of standing up and joining into the fight," said Boles.
And the timing couldn't have been better. On the night before Houston Heights High School was to host Boles, someone shot the front windows. Workers were replacing them as he was delivering his motivational speech inside.
It's been his mission since December 7.
"I'm just a messenger; whether people listen or not that's up to them," Boles told us.
Boles is riding 2,000 miles from San Diego to New Orleans in time for the Super Bowl, stopping along the way to inspire community leaders, politicians and even teenagers to find real solutions to violence. He specifically chose an elliptical bike.
"You have to stand up and use your legs the entire time," Boles said.
An RV follows him. In the time he's been on the road, there has been the mall shooting in Oregon and the school massacre in Connecticut. Bullet holes here seem small, but students do need the push says school psychologist Dana Griffin.
"For a lot of them it's not that they're bad kids. I think for a lot of cases it's a survival instinct, and it's why this is important to offset that," said Griffin.
And Boles is happy to help.
"How can you start to look at your future and develop a vision when your current vision isn't safe?" said Boles.
If you'd like to find out more, you can visit Stand-UpAmerica.com.
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