Scott Jones inspires Dal students with anti‑homophobia campaign

For almost two years, Scott Jones has been rebuilding his life after being stabbed by a stranger who was high on drugs. The attack severed Jones’s spinal cord and left him a paraplegic.
 
Jones, 29, spoke to 1,100 first-year students from the Faculties of Health Professions, Medicine and Dentistry on Tuesday evening about the fear he felt when he realized he could no longer feel his legs and the anxiety he felt previously about telling people he is gay.

Jones, who believes he was targeted by his attacker and is the victim of a hate crime, told students that the care he received from health teams in Nova Scotia in the aftermath of the attack was critical in helping him rise above his ordeal.

 “The care I received at the (Nova Scotia) Rehab Centre was second to none. They cared about the pain I was going through,” he told the students gathered at the Rebecca Cohn for the event as part of their inter-professional training.“Because of that experience at Rehab, I was able to turn a negative experience into a positive one.”

The seeds of that shift were planted earlier for Jones while he was in the intensive care unit after the attack. From his hospital bed, he started a social media campaign called Don’t Be Afraid aimed at fighting homophobia. "I was done with fear," he said.

The campaign took off and soon he was receiving encouraging messages from all over the world. In a video he replayed for the audience this week, Jones says, “I feel like I’m surfing or riding this wave of love.”

Jones studied music and choral directing at Mount Allison University and has recently started directing choirs again. He closed his hour-long talk with a song performed with his sister, surprising the audience by telling them he wanted to sing the duet standing up with the help of leg braces.
 
He won their hearts when he asked the students to cheer him on as he got out of his wheelchair. They did, loudly and enthusiastically.

Afterwards many of the students said they felt very moved by Jones’s message and his presence on stage.

“It was absolutely amazing. He was inspiring to listen to,” said Katie Sumarah, an occupational therapy (OT) student. “And it warmed my heart because someday we hope to have an impact on someone’s life like that.”

“It was a very moving story. I felt connected to everyone, and we were in awe,” added Christie Davidson, a fellow OT student. “Hearing Scott confirmed my choice of profession and that this is where I want to be.”