After watching Jon Pritikin tear a phone book in half, bend a steel rod with his teeth and roll a metal frying pan in his hands like a sandwich wrap, it's hard to believe that he was ever bullied.

But Mr. Pritikin, of Lodi, Calif., who holds the record in the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records for the speed at rolling frying pans, makes his living by traveling the globe and describing a childhood of abuse that he suffered at the hands of other children and sometime adults because of a speech impediment and learning disability.

He spoke on Friday to students at Steel Valley Middle School in an effort to inspire them to stick up for classmates who may be the target of bullies and to convince those who are victims of bullying never to give up on themselves.

"When you make fun of someone, it hurts. Words hurt," said Mr. Pritikin, who travels the world with his presentation.

He grabbed the students' attention with his feats of strength, inviting some of them up onto the stage to verify that his props were real.

He had students hold and examine the phone book and frying pan before destroying them.

To prove the steel rod he was about to bend in half was really strong, he had two girls hold onto each end, then he lifted it up in the air and twirled the girls, while they dangled off the sides.

This drew cheers and laughter from the audience and nervous faces from the girls who hung on tightly.

After putting the girls down, Mr. Pritikin placed the rod in his mouth, with some padding for his teeth surrounding it, and bent it in half with his hands.

After getting the students' attention with the stunts, Mr. Pritikin began to tell the story of a little boy who ended up in a special-education class in first grade because he couldn't talk properly. The speech impediment caused the boy to be picked on and bullied.

Mr. Pritikin said one day in third grade, the boy was overjoyed when he was finally asked to participate in a running game with a large group of classmates. But partway through the game, the other boys turned on him and began to chase him.

As the boy tried to run away, he was eventually tripped by someone and he fell and hurt his face, requiring a trip to the emergency room and stitches.

In fourth grade, he said, the boy was taken out of his special education classroom and placed in a regular classroom, where the other students made fun of him and the teacher called him a "throwaway."

In seventh grade, the boy started a new school, where his mother told him the students would be nicer. But the bullying and exclusion continued. On his first day of school when he tried to eat lunch at a table where some eighth-grade girls were sitting, he was called "retarded" and chased away. He ran outside and sat alone by a tree crying.

"He found out the girls could be as mean as the boys," Mr. Pritikin said.

In high school, the boy faced more harassment. However, there he was befriended by a teacher who helped him find his way around the school and spent time with him after school helping him with his homework and to correct his speech problems.

That teacher changed the boy's destiny by helping him improve his speech and academics and to feel better about himself. It was also during that time that the boy started to work out and play sports.

He was then able to go to college, though he had to apply to numerous schools in order to find one that would accept him -- Bethany University in Scotts Valley, Calif. -- and that was on academic probation.

Though he struggled his freshman year, Mr. Pritikin said the boy eventually made the dean's list and was able to graduate even though some of the adults in his life had tried to convince him at times that he wasn't college material.

If students hadn't figured it out on their own, by this point in the story, Mr. Pritikin revealed that the boy was him.

"My whole life, people made fun of me," Mr. Pritikin said. "I was someone that everyone laughed at and made fun of and I can remember every word that was spoken to me."

But the important message, he said, is that he never gave up on himself.

The attention from his high school teacher helped him immensely.

"He saw something in me that no one else did," Mr. Pritikin said.

Years later, he would run into that teacher again in the audience of an inspirational speech he was giving to businessmen at the Oakland, Calif., convention center.

"He said, 'Jon I am really proud of you,'" Mr. Pritikin said.

Mr. Pritikin encouraged students to never give up on themselves and to stand up for those who are being picked on.

"No one ever stood up for me," he said.

He also encouraged students to find ways to include those not normally included in their activities, such as inviting a student who eats lunch alone to join a group.

"Sometimes all we need is someone to eat lunch with us, someone to be our friend," Mr. Pritikin told the students.