"All the boys surrounded me and they're talking about me and they're saying derogatory words and I started crying," said Campos, who is now a freshman at the Metropolitan State College of Denver.
Tim Sweeney is all too familiar with stories like this. He is the president of the Gill Foundation which created the Gay and Lesbian Fund for Colorado. His nonprofit group granted $50,000 to the Colorado Legacy Foundation to launch a new statewide anti-bullying initiative.
"Nine out of 10 gay kids report being bullied in school. This is a crisis," Sweeney said. "It can really hurt a kid's health, mental health, [and] academic performance. Indeed, it can even lead to suicide."
That's apparently what happened to 18-year-old Tyler Clementi. He was a freshman at Rutgers University who jumped off a bridge last month. Police say his roommate broadcast Clementi and another man having sex via the Internet.
Campos says he can understand how distraught Clementi must have felt.
"Cause you feel like you're an outcast and nobody wants you around them," Campos said.
The Colorado Legacy Foundation wants to change that. It will use the grant to create a section in its online Health and Wellness Best Practices Guide.
"The practical tips that will be in the online resources guide are proven to decrease bullying," Sweeney said.
Sweeney believes that through education teachers, parents, administrators and students can work together to prevent bullying before it starts.
"Educators are really scrambling and looking for guidance here and we believe the Legacy Foundation is an ideal organization," Sweeney said.
Campos believes the online guide can be a big help.
"[Teachers] don't know what to do. They don't interrupt or they don't intervene," Campos said. "They never say anything about it. They normally brush it off and never say anything about it."
Sweeney says the online guide will also help students recover from being bullied.
"How do you take a child who is bullied and make sure they become whole, that they heal, that they feel support," Sweeney said.
Part of the grant will also be used to help the Colorado Legacy Foundation put on their annual Healthy Schools Summit on Nov. 9. The summit will feature a discussion on anti-gay bullying with speakers from the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Campos truly hopes that these efforts can stop the pain before it starts.
"I hope I can see that day where nobody gets ridiculed no matter what and it's just equal," Campos said.
(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)