Tonight Show host Jay Leno gave props last night to the most cyber-bullied kid on the planet for starting the No Cussing Club. McKay Hatch started the club at his middle school two years ago. It now has 30,000 members around the world – and an angry internet mob bent on destroying it.
“I don’t get it,” a genuinely perplexed looking Leno told McKay, regarding all the taunting the boy has been getting. Leno congratulated McKay, who sat on the set next to Cuba Gooding Jr., for not caving in to the people giving him guff. He said that when he was young, other kids were into pot and booze, while he was just into his cars, and he took some flak for that, but stood his ground.
When the cameras weren’t on, Cuba asked McKay if he would give him a copy of the book he has coming out next week: “The No Cussing Club. How I fought Peer Pressure and How You Can Too.” Cuba told him he wanted to give the book to his kids. Jay sat down with McKay before the show for about 10 minutes to put him at ease before going on. After the show, the boy was told to order whatever he wanted from the snack bar for people on the set. He got a hamburger, chips and candy.
The high school sophomore has repeatedly made it clear that he doesn’t want to outlaw cursing, just encourage people to try and kick the vice. But 
the harassment is only getting worse. Hatch’s enemies have organized on the Internet to spam him with taunting messages. They have sent to the boy’s Pasadena home everything from pornography to more than $2,000 worth of pizzas. Hatch has received tens of thousands of profanity filled emails from people ordering him to take down his site, or else. Others, including grown men, have posted tirades against him on You Tube. One teenager is so worked up as he screams at Hatch, he’s practically crying. The family no longer answers its home phone because every time they pick it up someone is cursing them out. The boy has received death threats on the phone and via email.
Now the FBI and the Pasadena police are investigating. They have leads, and say people will be prosecuted. It is illegal to send a death threat over the phone or Internet. Kelly Crabb, the L.A. attorney who handled the Elizabeth Smart case, is assisting the Hatch family pro bono.
In the meantime, McKay has become a sort of patron saint of bullied kids. This week he’s filming a DVD to send to the more than 100 schools that have written, asking him to speak about peer pressure. And tonight he’ll be on Jay Leno. McKay plans to tell Jay he has no intentions of backing down. “It’s out of control,” says Hatch, who plays soccer (there he is in the foreground) and video games and violin. But he says he’s gotten 60,000 emails since the start of this year alone and most of them are from people saying he has inspired them to take the No Cuss Challenge and telling him to ignore the bullies.
Now some of those supporters are taking heat. Lake Forest pastor Denny Bellesi and his wife Leesa got a death threat email this week ordering them to remove a You Tube video they posted on their Kingdom Assignment website. The video shows Hatch rapping his No Cuss song at their 2008 Well Done Awards. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is investigating. “We won’t take it down,” says Leesa Bellesi. In fact, they’re inviting Hatch back for this year’s award show.
Click for a full story about McKay and his club.
Yeah I totally understand the cyberbullying garbage. I ‘ve been getting that myself for months, including threats. I’ve gone on the Internet & defended Elizabeth Smart from Internet trolls who call her everything from a runaway to a porn star. You wouldn’t believe the amount of harassment, profanity & cyberstalking I get as a result. People hate it when you try to change their attitudes about ANYthing. The Internet has made people very uninhibited about what they post online. No one likes being told what to do or say or believe. I hope the people who are harassing this poor kid get jail time. Some of them sound like they’re psychotic. I certainly can’t imagine normal people threatening this kid with death just because he’s trying to persuade people to stop cussing.
Some people must depend on foul language for their identity. They use it to intimidate others . . . and without intimidation - they lose thier identity.
Can people be any more immature? You’d expect most adults to at least know better, but come on now…
It is important to keep in mind that, contrary to his critics, this kid is NOT calling for the abolition of free speech. He is asking people to VOLUNTARILY elevate their vocabulary.
Bravo young MacKay Hatch. We need more young and old people of your fortitude to stand up for Good and decent principles.
Cracks me up. Whenever you get into an area that contains a lot of teenagers, malls, movie theatres, etc., they all cuss like sailors. Every other word is the F-Bomb. So what’s the big deal if this kid doesn’t want to cuss and is trying to convince other kids not to cuss? I can imagine that the people who are threatening him are not very bright. In fact, I really think that most people who cuss regularly are only doing so because they aren’t very bright. People who are smart have a better vocabulary and don’t need to cuss. I was in a crowded restaurant the other night with my 2 year old son and the table next two us had four 20-somethings sitting there. Every other word out of their mouth was an expletive. I asked them to take it easy on my sons ears. I just don’t get how people can sit somewhere like a busy restaurant and cuss up a storm at loud levels and think nothing of it. I wish there were more kids like this Hatch kid that do their part to try to right a sinking ship. Way to go McKay!
“Anonymous” club? they couldn’t come up with anything more original? such as the S***F***A*******s of America? or something?
that’s just sad, that people would waste all their free time doing ridiculous stuff like this, just to hurt some harmless jr. high kid with a harmless (positive) idea. glad to hear the FBI and police are on the trail, and aren’t afraid to prosecute. when it goes beyond actual words and opinions and crosses the lines to threats of violence, that is one step too far and should be punished accordingly.
Good luck to Hatch in all this. I suppose I don’t go looking for such things so this was all news to me. It’s a good cause and while I guess I shouldn’t be I’m not simply surprised, but amazed that so much ire is being directed at him.
I hope the prosecutions find appropriate targets and take some of these homegrown terrorists down. Ridiculous behavior!
Wow, people with nothing better to do that cyberbully a kid. Sounds like trolls. Mentally ill and unmedicated trolls.
There is an old saying: “Monkey see Monkey do”.
I suspect a lot of people that feel compelled to cuss are mimicking their heroes in movies etc. thinking “if they’re cool so am I” while making themselves look like boors.
He is being threatened because he dare ask people to kick the vice. Cussing is indicative of a persons inability to use the english language. “F-ing” this and “F-ing that.” Sometimes cussing is necessary, such as narrowly being missed by lane changing moron or smashing your thumb with a hammer.
It is amazing that so many would bully this boy and the idea to use one’s words….words that do not include expletives!
Wasn’t “Anonymous” the internet group that had vowed to take on and defeat Scientology?
I find cursing comes quite naturally - but I am quite proud McKay and I am willing to give booting the bad words another shot thanks to his fine efforts. Good for him…and good for the authorities for cracking down.
Good luck Mr. Hatch!
Bizarre…. people really need to get a life.
I like to drop a raunchy F bomb every now and then, away from the ears of my child. Makes me feel better — for the moment, anyway. But I never swear in public, which I believe is in poor taste. I do like Ken’s comment “He is asking people to VOLUNTARILY elevate their vocabulary.” And I do hope young Mr. Hatch keeps up the good fight!
I wish there were more kids like this one. People only make fun of others because they feel bad about themselves. Maybe these people are so stupid that they do not have the vocabulary to express themselves and someone like McKay Hatch makes them feel even more stupid. But as Forrest Gump says “Stupid is as stupid does.”
I’d guess it’s more random 4chan users than Anonymous themselves but is hard to differentiate since neither is well defined.
What a little nerd!!! The smartest most successful people I know cuss all the time. I’d rather spend my time around them than someone offended by every other word.
I bet the reaction to the No Cuss Club started out as a joke, and then just ran out of control like a wildfire. It’s like when you were a kid, and you found out that your friend “Bill” didn’t like being called “William”, so from then on everybody called him William just to get a reaction.
This kid obviously didn’t do anything to antagonize or encourage the people who are bothering him, but he made his distaste for cursing rather public, and sometimes that’s all it takes. Children can often be cruel, and probably there are many of us who couldn’t resist calling the red-headed kid “Rusty” or the fat kid “Whale” or the kid with the braces “tinsel teeth” when we were kids … the sad part is when we continue to do so as adults.
this kid is a hero. keep not cussing, man!
Cussing, it automactically places you in a class of people. The more you do it, the less intelligent and honorable you sound look and act. People will never be treated equal with their vices. It’s like smokers,, there must be tons of opportunities for friendship I have not pursued with smokers, becuase it is such a discussing habit to be around. Thus many are bound to their little clics and take their ten breaks a day together in a cloud of smoke.
I can remember as a juvie and cussing along with a friend, and thinking “that sure sounds stupid”
A word is just a word. If you choose to let a word or series of words offend you, please understand that that is your choice.
We have these “four letter words” so that grown adults can express their anger without, say, throwing a tire at that person.
Seriously, if you’re an adult and you really think “cussing” is a problem, then you’re part of the cancer that is killing America.
These are sick people and sick people don’t want to hear about their bad habits. Its just like gang members that try to get other people in their gang so they feel normal, because now other people do it.
I hope McKay Hutch continues his internet no cussing club.
i just want to say as some one who prefers not to cuss that i give major props to this kid! Its sad that people feel the need to suppress this guy for trying to better himself and lift up those around him. I personally believe that God desires for us to use our words with caution and care and not to slander or be profane, but even if not for that i agree that use of fowl language really is a lack of vocabulary and/or intelligence showing its sad face. I feel pity for the fools who are so shaken by this kids stance that they are driven to behave this way. Sadly i need to feel concern for the boy, his family and friends and their safety. But im just one voice saying KEEP IT UP!!!! YOU ROCK!!! and youre the MAN.
I gotta say that i do cuss. it’s not that bad of a thing to do as long as you keep yourself in check. I really only do it when I am with friends who do not mind or if they cuss as well.. If someone asks me to not use any profane words I willl be polite and stop. I do realize that I cuss way more than I should and it is my new year resolution to cut way down on my swearing
Have you seen the kids parents on the news . There a bunch of crazy religious nuts. I feel sorry he has been brain-washed by his parents.
This kid is so out of touch with the real world and probably has been home schooled too long.
When he turns 18 he will say “F off” to his parents as he runs out the door to start his own life and thinking..
Frankly, I applaud this kid. Our language is peppered with profanity; it isn’t clever, it isn’t original, and it isn’t the way to communicate. I remember my brother saying to a girl who cursed like a longshoreman “do you kiss your mom with that mouth?”. It is so prevelant in our society is it barely shocking anymore. For the record, I am not a religoius nut, nor do I want to change “Free speech”, but since the 1960s and Lenny Bruce, the language of Americans has taken a downturn for the worse.
Good for him! I for one am sick of the endless profanity in everyone’s speech.
well personally i think that this kid is doing a great thing and that is why so many people are mad at him. This is just a battle between good and evil and I pray that good wins. The thing i cant understand is that from what i gather he is not forcing anyone to do this so why is he so hated just for trying to help bullied people deal with there problems. This is a weird world we are living in and all I got to say is that I hope he keeps doing good. And for all you people out there thinking im some type of softy anti swearing individual im not. I swear all of the time and I have even tried to stop but its all just army talk i guess.
The creators of the no cussing club, McKay and Brent Hatch have done so at great personal gain. Their material promotes the organization as the brainchild of their 15-year-old son, when actually the material is written by his parents, who also manage his profitable career while using his speaking events to plug their own material.
He wouldn’t be profiting from it if he hadn’t spent the past two years being bombarded with anger by internet cretins (and I’ll bet they’re mostly adults) and could build up a story worth telling.
I suppose that if the pilot of the plane on the Hudson decides to write a book, you’ll consider that he experienced what he experienced solely for “great personal gain?” Heaven forbid someone with a story to tell gets to tell it!
Good for him. I try and limit my cussing, but it’s a habit and it slips. When it’s front of children and older people, I wish I could take it back.
Anything worth doing never comes without a struggle! Mckay is an amazing child. I curse every now and then but only when I am around people who are indifferent to it. That is pathetic that some people have persecuted this kid for what he believes. These people are the ones that have poisoned America! I think it is ludacris that he is getting so much flack for standing up for what he thinks is right. Heaven forbid anyone to think for themselves, that is absurd! There are too many cowards in this country who don’t think for themselves and stand for what they think is right and go with the flow and follow everybody else. I think Mckay is a great person and I wish more people were like him!
The original movement and campaign was spiritually birth in 2005 and has been in motion ever since… Do the research….check our website http://www.stopcussin.com or even google us…
I don’t see anything offensive about McKay’s efforts to encourage youths and adults to voluntarily stop cussing. I saw the interview of McKay on the Leno show, and today I saw him interviewed on CNN. There was nothing in his message where he could be accused of trying to stop free speech, or where he is condemning of people that do cuss. To me, he is the voice of a young man who is exercising his right to free speech by saying that it is cool not to cuss. Don’t let the bullies on the Internet or in school pressure you to back off from your campaign. God bless you.
I think it’s great he thought of this website. I hear people at my school cuss daily. And I’m sick of hearing it! People in my grade shouldn’t be saying the ‘F’ word 15 times a day.
I think this is awesome, I am a freshman and i hear people cussing all the time. i have gotten some of my friends to stop……but so many people do it its just terrible…..People should”nt be saying that stuff.