When you go through tough things, it helps to have someone go through it with you.
So that you’re not feeling alone.
When 11-year-old Jackson Johnston’s Papa Rick had cancer, Jackson was right there by his side.
These two had always been inseparable.
Papa Rick had taught Jackson to golf, how to boat, and the rules to all his favorite sports games.
Then Papa Rick was diagnosed with Stage 4 Mantle cell lymphoma.
As a result, Papa Rick ended up losing all of his hair.
But Jackson wasn’t going to let Papa Rick go it alone.
“He knew that Papa Rick was kind of down in the dumps about losing his hair,” Jackson’s mother Amber told NBC News.
“He is always styling his hair and has it looking really nice so he knew that Papa was really bothered by that.”
Jackson mustered up the courage to shave his own head so that his grandfather wouldn’t feel alone.
“He told his Papa, ‘you won’t be alone. You won’t be the only one losing your hair. You won’t be the only bald one in the family,’” Amber said.
Jackson chopped off his long shaggy blond hair and side-swept bangs with a clean buzz cut.
“I thought we could start a new club for shaved heads,” Jackson said. “I’ve always wanted to be like him. Knowing that I made him feel good when he didn’t feel that well-meant a lot to me.”
But the kids at school decided to give Jackson a hard time about his new look.
“Right off the bat I got two mean comments at the table — ‘baldy’ and ‘you look like you have cancer.’ I got really mad at first, but then I got really sad throughout the day,” Jackson said.
This really took the wind out of Jackson’s sails.
He was all excited about his new look before the kids decided to rain on his parade.
Amber decided to reach out to the school’s principal about it.
“We take the issue of bullying seriously, but I thought if you believe in something, you have to find a way to stand up and literally show your support,” Principal Tim Hadley told the Des Moines Register. “So I was lying in bed and I thought maybe I will get a hold of his mom and ask her to send those clippers in.”
The very next day, Amber sent Jackson to school with those clippers.
And Hadley allowed Jackson to shave his head in front of 175 students at Pekin Middle School.
“I think we look at social media and we see this perfect person behind it. That person could be broken and we project one image and some of us live another,” Hadley explained.
“So exactly right before we pass that comment, make that judgment, let’s take a serious at what the other person is and try on their shoes for a little bit.”
Hadley’s display quickly got the bullies off Jackson’s back.
“If you can educate the heart, you can educate the mind,” he said.
As for Jackson, he says he plans on keep his head shaved until his grandfather goes into remission.
Learn more about this exemplary principal’s act of kindness toward his students in the video below.
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