Father forces daughter to walk five miles to school after repeatedly bullying classmates on bus
'This is my small way of trying to stop [bullying] in my household,' the father says in the now-viral video
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Your support makes all the difference.A father’s attempt at stopping bullying in its tracks has gone viral after he recorded his daughter walking five miles to school as punishment for bullying her classmates on the bus.
Matt Cox, who lives with his family in Ohio, filmed his 10-year-old daughter being forced to walk in the frigid cold after she was said to have repeatedly bullied other students at her elementary school.
“Bullying is unacceptable,” Mr Cox says as he films his daughter from inside his car. He continues to trail his daughter as she lugs a backpack and bag down a narrow two-way street. “This is my small way of trying to stop it in my household.“
The video, uploaded to Facebook after the incident occurred, has got 15m views and provoked an online debate about parenting and bullying.
Mr Cox has stood firmly behind his decision, writing in a caption coinciding with the video, “Still has all her extremities intact is happy and healthy and seems to have a new outlook on bullying as well as a new appreciation for some of the simple things in life she used to take for granted.”
“I know a lot of you parents are not going to agree with this and that's alright,” he says. “I am doing what I feel is right to teach my daughter a lesson and to stop her from bullying.”
In the 10-year-old child’s defence, she told local news outlet WTVG News that she, too, had been bullied and would be kind to others from this point on.
Her father reportedly broke up the long trek to her school over a three day period in which she was suspended from riding the bus due to the incidents of alleged bullying.
While many of the 63,000 comments under the video appeared supportive, some expressed disdain towards Mr Cox, noting the apparent “irony” in filming the ordeal.
“Humiliate her by putting her on Facebook being punished. Irony,“ one user wrote.
Mr Cox has said he hopes the video and incident will cause parents to “start holding their kids accountable”.
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