PEABODY — Everyone processes grief differently, and as the eldest daughter who was often the errand-goer and translator, Cely Rosario channeled her grief into action, and her sole purpose is to keep her brother’s name alive.
Her little brother Jason Bernard died by suicide in May due to bullying. He was only 14.
She described Jason as a goofy, silly, funny kid, an animal lover, and an avid baker. He had aspirations to go to Hollywood and also to be an electrician. He was “a child that wanted to be surrounded by his friends, laughing, getting on the school tables, dancing, being a typical kid, just full of life.”
Rosario said Jason left a very clear message in his letter: “Keep my name alive, and more needs to be done on mental health and bullying.”
“Those were his words,” Rosario said, “and that’s in my head, and it replays.”
She has since made it her mission to ensure the City of Peabody addresses mental health and bullying.
“If I sat in my grief, then I would’ve probably sunk,” Rosario said candidly. “I have to do something because when the waters are still, then my mind starts moving in many different directions, so I feel like this is how I’m processing my grief. Talking to people, being in the mayor’s office saying, ‘This is what we need to do for our community,’ or ‘What do you guys think about this?’ because if I sit still, I am probably going to melt.”
Just this year, under the umbrella of Peabody PROMISE — a community-led initiative to strengthen local support and resources for mental wellness, bullying prevention, and suicide prevention — as well as the Jason’s Legacy Foundation, she has instigated plenty of positive change.
From the new student resource center at Higgins Middle School, which is staffed with mental health clinicians, to partnering with BLOOM, an app which provides Peabody residents with free mental health and wellness resources, Rosario has been the heart behind many moving marks of progress for the City of Peabody.
Rosario has also taken her message statewide, urging for legislation to: create clear definitions and accountability measures for bullying and cyberbullying, mandate anti-bullying education in schools, require intervention training for teachers and staff, and provide resources for mental health support for both victims and aggressors.
She hopes the legislation can address how to identify when bullying becomes harassment, which interferes with people’s livelihood, because that’s what happened with Jason. She noted that, as is common with proposing legislation, there have been some roadblocks along the way, “but we’re going to keep fighting for the law to change… for the people that are doing these things to have some sort of accountability.”
“I would love to see the people that Jason named go do some sort of community service,” Rosario added. “They’re young, too. They’re teenagers. They’re learning. They’re growing. But you have to be held accountable. Your words have power, and you don’t know how somebody else is going to go ahead and interpret that.”
Rosario has also, through Jason’s Legacy Foundation, spearheaded annual events to remind everyone to be kind and remember Jason.
The first annual Jason Legacy Walk, a community 5K for anti-bullying awareness, happened earlier this fall and is set to return next August as a back-to-school event. The annual cornhole tournament will also return next August.
There is also much on the horizon in remembrance of Jason. Rosario said she is currently planning Jason’s Cookies, an event which will happen every April at Peabody High School where “every kid, whether they can afford it or not, will get a cookie… We’ll do like a Jason Gram where you can send a cookie with a nice little saying on it.”
She also said there will be an essay competition for sixth graders each May where students will write about bullying, and the Jason’s Legacy Foundation has also created a scholarship fund for students from Peabody High and/or Essex Tech to get some assistance in pursuing higher education.
“Jason’s Legacy is kind of planting that seed, with Peabody PROMISE, to make sure this becomes an everyday reminder of something. We had a loss, and now we’re gonna grow from that loss to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Rosario said.
