Lake City students hear anti-bullying message during BMX stunt show

Lake City High School students got a full-speed assembly of ramps, applause and aerial tricks, but the message under the noise was about surviving the harder parts of teenage life. The No Hate High School Tour brought professional BMX riders to the gym on Thursday, April 23, 2026, and used the spectacle to talk directly about bullying, mental health and the power of having someone to lean on.

Students cheered as riders hit Superman stunts, 360s, backflips and other jumps that turned the gym into a temporary arena. Between runs, the tour shifted from entertainment to prevention, with athletes talking about depression, online bullying, kindness and the importance of friendship and healthy outlets when life starts to feel unmanageable. Emcee Zack Yankush anchored that message with a personal account of how the years after the COVID-19 pandemic left him without sponsors, money or motivation, and how relationships and BMX helped pull him out of depression.

For Coeur d’Alene Public Schools, the assembly landed at a moment when schools across the country are still dealing with bullying, social isolation and student stress that can spill into classrooms, hallways and phones. Lake City’s own news page had already flagged the visit on April 14, listing an in-school No Hate Tour assembly for Thursday, 4/23, which shows the event was built into the school calendar rather than added at the last minute.

The No Hate High School Tour says it is now in its 26th year and has visited more than 4,000 high schools nationwide. The tour says the program is free for schools and usually lasts 45 to 60 minutes, with four to five BMX pros, a professional emcee, ramps, sound, insurance, prizes and an event manager. Tour materials say the program began in 2000 as an anti-smoking assembly and later shifted toward bullying prevention after administrators said bullying had become a bigger issue in schools.

That history, along with a decade-long partnership with the U.S. Marines, gives the program staying power beyond a single pep-rally style visit. At Lake City, the event blended action-sports spectacle with a lesson meant to outlast the cheers: students need practical ways to handle pressure, choose good influences and keep one another from being pushed out by cruelty or isolation. The test now is whether that message reaches past the gym and into the daily climate of the school.