Motivational speaker and California native Jon Pritikin bends a steel rebar in his mouth Monday during an anti-bullying assembly at Northwest Elementary School. Pritikin spoke about being bullied growing up.

Standing in front of hundreds of students at Northwest Elementary School Monday morning, Jon Pritikin rolled up a frying pan like it was dough.

He performed a variety of other impressive feats, including bending a steel rebar while holding it in his teeth and ripping a phone book in half. However, students will not remember him for his physical strength, but his visceral story about how he was bullied growing up.

“You're going to go through a tough time in life, and it might not make sense,” said Pritikin, a California native.

He talked about a little boy who was relentlessly bullied and teased in grade school because he was diagnosed with a learning disability. He was called names by his peers, and even some of his teachers. At one time, he was taken to the hospital to get stitches in his chin because classmates pushed the boy over.

“That's my story,” Pritikin said to them. “My whole life, I had been a joke.”

But not anymore. After struggling in school for several years, a high school teacher taught Pritikin how to read and practice speech. He graduated from college, and now spends much of his time retelling his story to students across the country and the world with his wife and daughter.

Pritikin was able to come to the school thanks to the National Character Education Foundation, an organization that connects motivational speakers with schools across the country. The foundation is based in Zelienople.

“Without state funding and grants, we can't do this,” said Jordan Gibson, director of operations with the foundation, who also had attended Northwest Elementary.

Principal Jack Ratica said the assembly is part of an ongoing anti-bullying message that students have been learning. Throughout the school year, teachers talk about bullying through watching videos, role playing and doing other exercises.

“We're trying to get a little bit of empathy for the other kid,” Ratica said. “I think he was authentic and did a great job communicating to my students.”

Many students carried that message with them as they walked back to their classrooms. Most of them high-fived Pritikin; others stopped to give him a hug.

“Don't ever believe a lie when someone tells you you're not special,” Pritikin said. “It's not true.”