‘Be Somebody, Anybody Can Be Nothing': Georgia Judge Brings Group of Teens to Tears

A judge in Bibb County, Georgia brought a courtroom full of young people to tears with an inspiring speech that has since gone viral.

Bibb County Superior Court Judge Verda Colvin volunteers with the county's "Consider the Consequences" class. According to NBC affiliate WXIA in Atlanta, the program aims to help redirect young people who are already headed down the wrong path by putting them face-to-face with the harsh consequences that could lie ahead.

The report states that Colvin wasn't aware the courtroom cameras were rolling last month when she began lecturing a group of young people in her courtroom. Colvin was brutally honest with the group about what their future might look life if they didn't turn their lives around.

She described how the young people could end up in jail, or "you can be in this body bag," Colvin said as she unfolded a white body bag.

"And the only way somebody will know you're in here is because of this tag with your name on it," she said.

As Colvin spoke to the group, many were moved to tears.  

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"Care about your future. Be somebody. Anybody can be nothing," she said, telling them "The fact that you're shedding tears means you want to be better, and you want to do better. Do it! The only person stopping you is you."

Colvin, an African-American woman, spoke candidly to the group which consisted largely of African-American youth. She urged them against becoming another statistic, and even referred to her own no-nonsense approach to raising a son as a single mother.

"Consider me your surrogate mom, don't you come up in here," she told the group, expressing that she is "sick and tired" of seeing young people - black and white alike - in her courtroom "going to jail for something stupid."

"Why would you want to be another statistic? Do you want to be another African-American male in a jail cell? Is that what you want for your lives? Come on," she said.

Colvin told the group that the advice and tough-love she dished out that afternoon wasn't any different than what she told her own son. She also advised the group against using their family or home situation as an excuse.

"I don't know what's going on in your lives, I don't know where you live, but don't use it as an excuse," she told them. "Anything either of you all are going through, somebody else went through it who is successful now."

She referenced her own upbringing by a single mother in a low-income neighborhood, and told the group how she never allowed herself to use that as an excuse.

Fighting back tears herself, Colvin concluded with a heartfelt message to the group.

"When I see you all hurting, it makes me hurt too," she said. "Because I don't even know you all personally but I love each and every one of you. I don't want you to come into my courtroom and I have to sentence you as an adult at the age of 17. I don't want that."

Since the Bibb County Sheriff's Office uploaded the video last week on Facebook, it's racked up more than 200,000 views and has more than 5,000 shares.