A boy bullied for his University of Tennessee t-shirt design has sold so many shirts that the college website crashed.
The incident took place in Florida where a fourth-grader made a University of Tennessee t-shirt design for his school's colors day. He told his teacher, Laura Snyder, that he wanted to represent the college, but didn't have a shirt, so she suggested wearing an orange one.
The unidentified boy then went a step further and designed his own college logo on the orange shirt.
"So when the day finally arrived, he was SO EXCITED to show me his shirt. I was impressed that he took it one step further to make his own label," Snyder wrote on Facebook.
But the boy's excitement turned to despair after he was mocked for the design at lunch. According to Snyder, he simply put his head on his desk and cried.
"Some girls at the lunch table next to his (who didn’t even participate in college colors day) had made fun of his sign that he had attached to his shirt. He was DEVASTATED," she wrote.
Snyder's post about the incident went viral, and it wasn't long before it came to the attention of the University of Tennessee, who decided to use the boy's design on an official shirt.
Amazingly, the shirt went on to sell so well that the college's website crashed.
In addition to using the boy's design for official merchandise, the college also sent him a care package.
"I'm not even sure I can put into words his reaction. It was so heartwarming," Snyder said in a subsequent Facebook update.
"When I told him that his design was being made into a real shirt and people wanted to wear it, his jaw dropped. He had a big smile on his face, walked taller, and I could tell his confidence grew today!"
The boy's mom went on to write a letter to his teacher, thanking her for calling out the bullies. She expressed her hope that the incident would serve as "inspiration for him throughout his life."
But perhaps best of all, the University of Tennessee is donating a portion of profits from the sale of the t-shirts to STOMP Out Bullying - a nonprofit that aims to reduce bullying.
