Earlier this month, footage of a father forcing his 10-year-old son to run a mile in the rain as punishment for bullying sparked a massive debate online.
American father Bryan Thornhill recorded a Facebook live video as he slowly drove behind his son, Hayden, as he ran with his school bag on his back ahead of the car. Keeping up a running commentary throughout, Bryan explained that his son had been caught bullying on the school bus, and was consequently suspended for three days as a result of his actions.
The clip was viewed more than 50 million times, reaching people around the globe and starting a mass debate from both sides of the argument. Bryan appeared on Weekend Sunrise to explain what motivated his punishment and whether he had regrets over uploading the footage to the internet.
He firstly explained that he needed to put the safety of the other children on the bus first, detailing how his son got in trouble for pushing and shoving other kids. He also caused chaos on the bus, with Bryan pointing out that the bus driver needed to be in a safe environment to complete the job.
The Weekend Sunrise hosts said they found the footage hard to watch and took issue with the fact that the footage was posted online with commentary.
“Posting it online wasn’t something that wasn’t intended for the world-wide reach that it’s had,” Bryan explained. “When I posted it online, it was just for my Facebook friends and it really just exploded and went world-wide so quickly. I don’t regret it, but I’m very thankfully for the reach it has had and we’ve had so many great reviews over it and so many parents that it’s inspired.”
He said that it showed parents that they weren’t alone in the struggle of bringing up children and “inspired millions” to get creative with their forms of punishment.
As for Hayden, he’s become somewhat of a local celebrity after the footage went viral. “After I ran I learnt my lesson,” he said, before saying that he’s enjoyed appearing on TV. “It’s kinda cool because I’d never been on the news,” he told the show’s hosts.
Bryan said that despite the backlash, 93 per cent of the feedback he’d received was positive, although he did explain why so many people took offense to his video. “The majority of the negatives, some people were upset that it was posted,” he said. “They supported the punishment, but didn’t support the posting.”
He added that some people actually bullied him, something he considered ironic. Starts at 60 previously asked readers what they thought of the punishment when the footage went viral at the start of the month. One reader wrote: “I don’t like bullying but I don’t think making the kid run in the rain was the best thing to do could have punished him some other way”.
Another said: “Oh good on him…more fathers need to be like this man. Running a mile in the rain can’t hurt him…didn’t we all run around in the rain for fun as kids? I know we went further than a mile…good dad…just doing the best for his kid,” while a third added: “The only problem I see here is the potential public humiliation by putting it on Facebook, otherwise I have no problem with the punishment”.