The footage is painful. In a video filmed and posted on Facebook by his mother, Quaden, a nine-year-old Australian boy with dwarfism, recounted the daily harassment he experiences at school and as soon as he leaves his home in Brisbane. His sad story soon became one of the most discussed topics on social media.
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'I want someone to kill me'
'I don't know what to do anymore,' wrote Yarraka Bayles, the mother, on her Facebook post. After yet another episode of harassment, she decided to film Quaden in tears, who goes so far as to ask for a knife to commit suicide.
'I want to die now! Give me a knife, I want to kill myself! I want to stab myself in the heart, you watch me. I want someone to kill me,' implores the boy, suffering from achondroplasia, a genetic disease.
Since its publication on Tuesday, the video has already had more than 17 million views on social media.
'I want people to know, parents, educators, teachers, that these are the effects that bullying has,' said Yarraka Bayles in the video, in front of her son's tears. 'Can you please educate your children, your families, your friends?' Because all it takes is for one more instant and you wonder why kids are killing themselves,' she insisted.
9 year old wanting to commit suicide due to being bullied. 💔💔💔🥺 pic.twitter.com/DysTrmlaiD
— YouDontNeedToKnowMyName (@S11E11B11A) February 20, 2020
Thousands of supporters... and new friends
Very quickly, Quaden supporters multiplied on the internet, most of them with the hashtag #WeStandWithQuaden invented for the occasion. An online campaign to send the child to Disneyland was created and has already raised nearly £360,000.
And the Quaden story even touched Hugh Jackman. The actor who played Wolverine posted a video on Twitter in which he gives unconditional support to the boy.
'Quaden, you're stronger than you know. No matter what, you have a friend in me. Everyone, let's please be kind to each other. Bullying is not okay, period. Life is hard enough,' the actor said.
'What I want you to know is that you have friends - me included. I'm your buddy. You haven't met me yet, but we'll see if we can change that. Maybe your mom can send me a DM,' supported Jeffrey Dean Morgan on the social network.
