As of Thursday, January 24, 2013
© Copyright 2013
Rockdale Citizen
Dr. Annise Mabry and children, Allie and Niles, will be featured on the TV show, "Trouble Next Door," Sunday. The family was helped by a group of neighbors from the Old Salem Estates neighborhood, located off Salem Road. The premise for the show is what can be accomplished by neighbors helping neighbors. --Special photo
CONYERS — The days of neighbors casually dropping by for a chat and a cup of coffee have pretty much gone by the wayside, but in at least one Conyers neighborhood they’ve proven the concept of neighbor helping neighbor isn’t dead yet.
An episode of “Trouble Next Door” featuring a group of Conyers neighbors who banded together to come to the aid of a newcomer to the neighborhood is set to air Sunday at 3 p.m. on the Oprah Winfrey Network. It will give highlights of what the neighbors did to assist Annise Mabry and her two children, Allie and Niles.
Mabry and her children moved from Coweta County to Old Salem Estates off Salem Road two years ago, but the move didn’t prove to be a happy one.
According to Mabry, her daughter, who was 12 at the time, enrolled at Memorial Middle School, but became a victim of bullying.
“We tried to get administrators to help, we went to counselors … everybody was really powerless in handling this new form of bullying,” Mabry said, adding that the abuse was conducted primarily through Facebook, Twitter and text messages. “They’d say things like, ‘You’re so ugly. You should just die,’” Mabry said. “I ended up pulling her out of school.”
About this same time, Mabry’s son, now 8, was diagnosed with Asperger’s disorder and Mabry herself had to quit work after she was found to suffer from CIDP — chronic inflamatory demylinating polyneuropathy, which affects the peripheral nervous system.
As a result of her daughter’s experiences, Mabry said she participated in a documentary produced by Georgia Public Broadcasting and the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange and from there was contacted by a production company that was looking for victims of bullying who were willing to talk about their experience. When the producers of the show came to talk to Mabry, they realized that she was a potential candidate for a segment of “Trouble Next Door.”
“They asked me how I was doing everything all by myself, and I told them, ‘Honestly, it’s hard. I’m so sick and tired and I have to get up and go because I don’t have anybody else,’” Mabry recalled, adding that they asked her if she’d asked her neighbors for help. “I told them, ‘I don’t even know my neighbors.’”
That day the show’s producers went out into the neighborhood, asking Mabry’s neighbors if they’d be willing to help her out.
“I was out at my mailbox walking my dog,” said Evie Sweet-Hurd, one of the neighbors who will be featured on the show. “They started talking to me and asked, ‘If you knew a family around here somewhere that needed help, would you be interested in helping?’” Hurd said. She told them she probably would and asked what they had in mind.
“They were very vague and said they were with Studio Lambert, a production studio, but didn’t mention the Oprah Winfrey Network because they didn’t want people to help because of her name,” Hurd said.
They told her Anise could use some help with walking her dog because often she was unable to walk, the daughter had become pretty much a recluse after her bullying experience and the son was too young.
“So I said, sure, we could walk dogs together if that would be helpful … that’s how I got involved with the family originally,” Hurd said.
Hurd, along with her husband Phil and son Jeff and the families of Laura French, Cecile Saul-Moore and Diana Travis are among the neighbors who will be featured on the show as all have found something to do to offer solutions to some of Mabry’s problems.
Hurd, along with Laura French, was instrumental in obtaining a scholarship for Mabry’s daughter to attend Eastminster School and she is now a successful member of the student body. Travis has offered therapeutic massages to Mabry at La Vie Spa and Salon. Moore saw a need to help with household chores and went in and cleaned Mabry’s house.
“One of the things the producers told us was that they were especially pleased with this episode because of the successful outcome … and the outcome is sustained. It’s not just a TV show that ended … it created a whole different dynamic for a lot of people in our community. That was what they wanted the show to do and they’ve told us that this is their favorite and most successful episode,” Hurd said.
More like this story
- Bears’ receiver Hurd charged with setting up a drug-dealing network ( December 16, 2011 )
- Rockdale Citizen Top Five Stories for Jan. 21 to 27 ( January 28, 2013 )
- Lawyer: List of NFL players who WR Hurd allegedly dealt drugs to does not exist ( December 18, 2011 )
- Darrell Huckaby - 05/13/09 ( May 13, 2009 )
- 'Oprah's Big Give' visits Conyers ( April 2, 2008 )
Comments
Rob 3 months, 3 weeks ago
"The premise for the show is what can be accomplished by neighbors helping neighbors" While it's nice that the people in this community have reached it. It's sad that Oprah has stooped so slow in her continuing battle to stay relevant. How about a show on the importance of the family unit? And how situations like this can be avoided when their is both a mom AND a dad around. But I guess that wouldn't be PC?
Christopher 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Oprah has done so much for Rockdale already! Glad to see her back! ( yes that is sarcasm)
AWOL 3 months, 3 weeks ago
This has to look bad for RCPS. I wonder what happened to the kids that were bullying the girl. Are they still in school? Still bullying others? Helping scores or hurting scores? Is anyone doing anything about it?
OprahHater 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Just another way for her to screw up this county again....just keep your assprin in Chicago or Hollywood or wherever your sitting these days.
RealConyers 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Another of our finest inbreds that needed to pay attention in English. Wherever your sitting?? Really..."you're sitting" genius.
ClaytonBigsby 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Don't these well intentioned, altruistic neighbors realize that by helping these ne'er-do-wells, they are simply helping to attract more of the same? We need more solid, productive families that can pay their own way in this county. Now the world will see one can get a handout in Rockdale County. What were y'all thinking?
kt 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Ummm. A little research might do you some good before you talk about things you don't know about. This mom was a perfectly good member of society, who held a job, provided for her kids, and worked HARD to raise them, until a perfect storm of illness came and destroyed her ability to provide for her children. All at the same time her daughter was being told to go off herself, and her son was diagnosed as special needs.
Also, I pray the locusts never descend on YOUR life, pick it clean, and people just stand around and watch. I hope if your kid gets bullied to the point that this child was, someone helps them, before they are unable to leave their room or want to go to school.
Elmo 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Same principle applies to ferral cats...you feed'em once, and they never stop coming.
noyoudidnt 3 months, 3 weeks ago
it seems like some people are using this a marketing strategy for their private school....just know that when you watch the show and the daughter is welcomed into the school that there has NEVER been such a reception for ANY student joining that school
kt 3 months, 3 weeks ago
There probably hasn't been a reception for any kid in the school like that, ever, you're right. But I'm also pretty sure that they've never welcomed in a young lady that was harassed so mercilessly, she was scared to even try Eastminster for a day.
What you don't know is that this school has a zero tolerance policy for bullying, period. They don't find it cute or funny, and they have the distinct ability to kick the bullier and their worthless parents the hell out and tell them to never come back.
Obviously, this isn't a PR stunt. They just handed out 15k to someone, and they sure don't want everyone in Rockdale County, hands outstretched, coming into that school looking for the same. I think, what they're trying to do here, is to show that there is still good left here in the county. Not all hope is lost, because in one tinie tiny corner of land, there are still teachers who care about teaching and making not only academic advances, but want to firstly mold the leaders of tomorrow into good and decent PEOPLE.
ClaytonBigsby 3 months, 3 weeks ago
So the 12 year old was a victim of bullying, but only through Facebook, Twitter, and text messages? It seems a simpler response from the parent would have been simply to restrict the childs access to Facebook and Twitter, and to acquire a new phone (number) for the child. Instead "I ended up pulling her out of school". It sounds like access to social media trumped education in this case. Good grief...
RockdaleHelps 3 months, 3 weeks ago
No, the bullying was not only on social media. This girl was bullied daily in school. And this is not an indictment of RCPS. It is an indictment of bullies. Kids in her school spit in her food, tripped her, made fun of her looks, and more. From the time she entered elementary school (in another county) kids made fun of her for liking to read and for being ahead in her classes. She and her family have been picked on enough. It is painful to see some of these comments doing the same.
ClaytonBigsby 3 months, 3 weeks ago
That IS a damning indictment of RCPS! I'm sickened to read that she had to endure this, and it just points out one more time the fact that the school system is too lily livered to tighten down on discipline and provide an orderly environment for learning. Anti-bullying banners and signs aren't the answer; expulsion is. Go ahead, take a lawsuit or three from some disgruntled "parent" who is upset that the free "daycare" provided by the school is in jeopardy!
RockdaleHelps 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Why so much hostility about this story? These are not people looking for a hand-out. Many of the comments here are bitter and mean. I know Rockdale County has people who are compassionate and kind. I hope their voices can be heard.
RockdaleHelps 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Maybe they were thinking that there were people genuinely needing help.
kt 3 months, 3 weeks ago
You know. It is okay for good to still come to people in this world! Why can't we just let this be a good ending to a terrible story? A reminder that maybe taking a batch of cookies over to the neighbors house, may end up being life transforming for you and them? A good way to start a conversation about bullying, how to not do it, how to take action when you see it happening, and about everyone being different but despite that difference, everyone needs love.
I think, perhaps, that may be what defines the parents and children at Eastminster; the willingness to love all people, regardless of their color or creed or the numbers on a tax return. Loving those who are easy to love and showing how to show love and mercy to those who truly need it in this world.
Say what you want, but these kids are our future. They are going to one day be leading our government, making medical advances that we can only dream of now, taking us into new frontiers of space, and being leaders in society. And most importantly? Teaching their children how to love and inspiring them to also, leave this world a little better then they found it.
INJUSTICE_FOR_ALL 3 months, 3 weeks ago
IF those kids are our future, were screwed
RealConyers 3 months, 3 weeks ago
I'm quite sure those kids could use proper grammar and know that it would be "we're screwed" you mental midget.
ClaytonBigsby 3 months, 3 weeks ago
How laughable that you deigned fit to set up an account in order to hurl invective about "inbreds" and pin on your "Grammar Police" badge. Methinks something must have gotten under your thin skin, "RealConyers". LMBO.
RealConyers 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Glad to see you researched my profile, that's progress. Wish you had done the same about this show before trashing the kids involved.
RoyAlexander 3 months, 3 weeks ago
I would like to thank the Rockdale Citizen, the community of Conyers, the Oprah Winfrey Network,and the families and friends of Eastminster School for reaching out and helping a family in need. There is a tremendous amount of good work being accomplished in our public and private schools. There are also many challenges we face every day as educators. Working together to help every child succeed and become great leaders are the goals for all of us, and I thank my colleagues in the field of education for devoting your lives to that mission. Together we will accomplish this mission.
It has been a pleasure working with Dr. Mabry, and Ally is doing wonderful at Eastminster!
With warmest regards, Roy Alexander Head of School Eastminster School
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