Search icon

Big Kids

11th Dec 2018

Daughter’s punishment for bullying classmate is dividing parents’ opinions

Jade Hayden

A dad has explained why he has been forcing his 10-year-old daughter to walk 8km to school every day.

Matt Cox has been making his daughter Kirsten walk the lengthy journey because she was recently punished for bullying a child in her class.

As a result, she was banned from the school bus and dad Matt decided that he wasn’t going to drop her to school either.

Instead, he shared a video of Kirsten walking to school as he drove alongside her.

The Ohio dad explained that he wanted his daughter to understand that what she had done was wrong and to know that he wouldn’t tolerate bullying.

In the video, which has since been deleted from Matt’s Facebook but reshared elsewhere, he said:

“Let me make this extremely clear: Bullying is unacceptable – especially in my household.

“I know a lot of you parents are not going to agree with this and that’s alright. I am doing what I think is right to teach my daughter a lesson to stop her from bullying.”

He also told ABC13 that he didn’t want to be a parent who “brushed things under the rug” when their child acted unacceptably.

“I just want the kids to know that words truly do hurt. They cut very deep and have lasting effects.

“I hope that parents hold their kids accountable.”

While many people have praised the dad for teaching his daughter what is right and wrong, others have criticised him for sharing the video in the first place.

So, what do you think – is it too much?

Topics:

bullying,ohio