A dad made his daughter walk five miles to school as a punishment for being kicked off the school bus due to bullying another student.
Matt Cox, from Ohio, US, shared a video on Facebook of him slowly driving behind his daughter – while delivering an explanation of her punishment.
“This lovely lady is my 10-year-old who has been kicked off the bus the second time due to bullying another student,” he said. “Let me make this clear, bullying is unacceptable, especially in my household.”
Cox said that on Friday, when his daughter brought home her paperwork for her bus suspension, she told him: ‘Daddy you’re going to have to take me to school next week.’
“As you see this morning, she is learning otherwise,” he said on the video.
Cox continued: “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.”
The video has been viewed more than 18 million times on Facebook with thousands of comments from parents all over the world.
“I think this is a great way to punish a child for bullying,” one person wrote. “Why should she get a lift, she needs to be taught a lesson. This is something I would do with my son should he ever get suspended.”
Another agreed, writing: “Well done dad, this is how it’s done.”
However, some parents felt the punishment was far too harsh. “That is not the way to teach your daughter making her walk in cold weather,” one mum wrote. “You should ground her or something – making her walk in the cold weather where she can get sick is not a cool thing to do, I think that’s bad parenting.”
“You should ground her or something – making her walk in the cold weather where she can get sick is not a cool thing to do."”
Another added that filming his daughter made it worse, “I disagree with making her walk all that way before school in the morning, and the fact you’ve publicised this to Facebook is even worse.”
One mum said that rather than just punishing their children, parents need to get to the root of the bullying behaviour. “Normally bullying starts with insecurities or even issues at home. My thing is she may continue bullying until the root of the problem is handled.”
The comments didn’t phase Cox. Updating his Facebook status, he wrote: “UPDATE: lesson learned! [She] 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.”
What do you think of the dad’s punishment? Let us know in the comments below.