Parents Are Divided After Video Of Boy Holding Sign On Side Of Road Goes Viral
Whether in person, at school, or online via phones, today's kids can't escape bullying. So when two parents learned their young son was in fact bullying others, they made him publicly carry a sign which read "I am a bully" to teach him a lesson.
But now people are debating whether the punishment fits the crime or if this punishment itself is a form of bullying.
The TikTok
Gavin, also known as @userxgwig52jip on TikTok, recently went viral for a video he shared which showed the very public punishment one boy received from his parents when they learned he was a bully. The video has gone viral with nearly 7 million views.
The caption on the TikTok post reads, "Dads a bully."
"Honk If You Hate Bullies"
The video itself is only 13 seconds long and background details regarding what led up to this public punishment are unknown. But what we do know is that while out for a drive one day, Gavin sees a boy standing on the side of the road holding a vibrant pink sign.
"I am a bully," the sign reads. "Honk if you hate bullies."
Disapproving Parents
Gavin and a friend sit inside a car and film the boy holding the sign. The video then cuts to the boy's parents who are sitting nearby in chairs and are keeping a close eye on their son.
Gavin and his friend are shocked by the public form of punishment, and say things like, "That's so mean," "That's so foul," and "I want to yell at the parents."
A Deep Divide
With 1.4 million likes and nearly 24,000 comments, people had strong opinions regarding Gavin's TikTok. The issue surrounded whether the parents went too far or not far enough.
The short video makes it clear that Gavin and his friend disapprove of the particular form of punishment dealt out by these parents, and many other users on TikTok agreed.
Public Embarrassment
Many users echoed Gavin's statement and said that while the child might be a bully, publicly humiliating him is not the way to resolve the problem. Some users suggested that there are more considerate methods of handling this problem that isn't detrimental to the boy's development, such as therapy.
"Public embarrassment isn't the right way to handle the situation," one user commented.
Repeating The Cycle
Some users said that while what the boy did was wrong, there are better and less hypocritical ways to teach him a lesson. Meanwhile, others said that the parents themselves are also bullies and are perpetuating the cycle of bullying.
"There is something wrong with this. They are bullying their child to teach him bullying is not okay? Sounds counterproductive," one user commented.
"Soft" Parenting
Most users who came across the now-viral TikTok, however, disagreed with Gavin's viewpoint and believed that the parents were totally in the right. They said that anyone who complains about this punishment being too harsh is "soft."
"That's parenting," one user commented. "Discipline, embarrassment to make them never do it again. That def ain't mean."
Let The Punishment Fit The Crime
Other people commented that there have been enough tragedies where bullied children take their own lives and therefore desperate times call for desperate measures. In their eyes, the punishment was justified and some life lessons need to be learned the hard way.
"You think the kid that got bullied isn't embarrassed every day at school. He got a taste of his own medicine," one user wrote.
