“I’m doing what I feel is right to teach my daughter a lesson.”
A man has kicked off a debate online after posting a video of his daughter walking five miles to school after getting in trouble for bullying.
In the clip, the ten-year-old girl can be seen walking down a country road while her dad follows behind in his car.
Matt Cox, from Ohio in the US, shared the clip after his daughter was caught picking on a classmate.
“This lovely lady is my 10-year-old who has been kicked off the bus the second time due to bullying another student,” he wrote on Facebook.
“Let me make this clear, bullying is unacceptable, especially in my household.”
Matt revealed that his daughter came home from school and said that she’d need him to drop her to school.
“As you see this morning, she is learning otherwise,” he wrote.
“A lot of children today feel that the things their parents do for them is a right and not a privilege, such as parents taking their kids to school in the morning.
“So today, my beautiful daughter is going to walk five miles to school.
“I know a lot of you parents are not going to agree, but that’s alright because I’m doing what I feel is right to teach my daughter a lesson and to stop her from bullying.”
A week after it was posted, the video has been viewed over 21 million times and shared by hundreds of thousands of people.
It’s earned a mixed response on Facebook, where it was originally posted.
Some have criticised Matt’s tough tactics, while others have commended him for taking such a strong stance.
“She will think twice before she does it again,” commented one user.
“If only there were more like you! Children get away with way too much these days,” said another.
“What the dad is doing is so wrong and heartbreaking, the child is not going to stop bullying. If he lets his daughter walk in bad weather he is a bullying himself,” wrote a third
“I could never do this to my child. I could only hope and pray that I would love my child and raise them good enough to know what love is and not hurting others,” said another.
What do you think – was he too harsh or could we all learn something from him?
