Yarraka Bayles from Brisbane, Australia, posted a video on Facebook of her 9-year-old son crying in the car for being bullied at school.
Quaden was born with achondroplasia – a subtype of dwarfism. In the video Bayles is explaining that his classmates are always bullying him.
“I’ve just taken my son from school, where I witnessed bullying, after which I contacted the dean. I want parents, teachers and everyone else to know how this ends”,-says the mother.
She was telling that schoolgirls were “stroking his head like a dog” and were mocking his height.
“He was horrified. He’s very strong and is trying not to show how hard it is for him. But it was painful for me to watch that. My heart was bleeding”,- Bayles says.
The mother says that at the age of six Quaden for the first time attempted suicide. In the video the boy is saying “Give me a rope, I want to end my life”.
Bayles has taken Quaden from school and is planning to start homeschooling.
The video quickly went viral, gaining more than 6 million views and 140000 reposts. Commenters showered the family with messages expressing their support and admiration to the courage of mother and son.
many Australian celebrities also reacted to this story. Australian rugby league footballer Latrell Mitchell met Quaden and even offered him to open one of the matches. Like Quaden, Mitchell also belong to Aboriginal Australians.
Samoan-New Zealand actress Teuila Blakely posted their photo on her Instagram account, and the whole rugby team recorded a video for him.
But the American stand-up comedian Brad Williams, who was also born with dwarfism, went the furthest. He created a fundraising account on GoFundMe, writing:
“I want Quaden to know we will never tolerate bullying and that he is an amazing person worth of happiness. I want to buy tickets to America for Quaden and his mother, book a nice hotel room and take them to Disneyland”.
In just one day Williams collected around $200,000. He promised to transfer the excess money to charities acting against bullying.
And have you faced bullying?