West Orange Man Remembers Day He Stood Up To Racist Bully

WEST ORANGE, NJ — While growing up in West Orange, Elvin Padilla was an easy target for bullies.

He was a “punk kid” who was probably a little too friendly for his own good. And his stuttering problem didn’t help, Padilla recently told Patch.

Padilla’s rock bottom came when a bully spat at him from the school bus and called him a sp**, bashing his Puerto Rican heritage. But ironically, it was that very incident that gave him the strength to evolve into the person he is now.

It all began when Padilla’s family moved to West Orange when he was just a little boy, he recalled.

“Splashes of culture were around every corner, and being Puerto Rican, it was an interesting ride to have such a mixed bag of neighbors,” he said. “They welcomed my family into a community free of stigma or any pressure to adapt to how they were living.”

But there are always some dark spots in an otherwise diverse community, Padilla added.

“There was one child — I’m not naming names — who would mercilessly bully the neighborhood, primarily those who didn't fit his world view,” he said. “Whether Jewish or Puerto Rican, Indian or Korean, there was an obvious favoritism in who he chose to abuse.”

That included Padilla, who literally found it a challenge to speak up for himself because of his stutter.

“Lucky for me, he was a few grades above, but that all changed once we headed on our buses for 6th grade,” Padilla remembered. “With that huge change, it started a snowball of constant bullying, slurs, threats and torment.”

Padilla’s grades began a slow-but-sure decline, progressing from “A's and B's” to “D's and F's.” He was terrified every day he went to school. His stuttering got worse, and soon it became hard to talk to anyone … bully or not.

Fortunately, a teacher at his school noticed Padilla’s struggles.

“One teacher, in particular, my old math teacher, Mr. Alston, finally stepped in,” Padilla said. “In a group meeting with the principal, my teachers and my parents — after going nowhere back and forth — he stood up and proclaimed to the staff: ‘If you all don't see as a race issue then you should be ashamed.’”

Eventually, school administrators heeded the call for help and tried to intervene. But the bullying continued, Padilla said.

Finally, one fateful day around Christmas break, the young man decided he’d had enough.

“After an argument on the bus while getting off at our stop he spits from the bus at me and called me a sp**,” Padilla said. “I made sure he knew that this was not going to happen again.”

After getting into it with his bully — a confrontation he only remembers “50/50” — the tormenting stopped. Eventually, his antagonist’s family moved out of West Orange and the once-daily abuse became just another bad memory.

But the lessons Padilla acquired from his bully experience remain to this day.

“The torment toughened me up, it made me want to prove him and anyone else wrong,” he said. “I dominated my stutter and can now talk in front of people with no worry. I used that experience to fuel a life where I don't stop, where I'm not afraid to fall nor am I afraid to stand up.”

It’s not like Padilla can’t take a joke or some good-natured, back-and-forth teasing … something his best friends will attest to. But the “one-sided hate” he experienced as a child was something entirely different.

“It prepared me for the harsh fact that things won't always work out,” Padilla said. “Sometimes you have to take it into your own hands and stand up to any force that may cause you harm.”

Padilla currently works as a video animation and marketing specialist. He’s lived in West Orange for more than two decades.

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