Peter H Brown Clinical Psychologist

Psychology News & Resources

Bullying: Casey Heynes Speaks Out

People all over the world have reacted to the video of Casey Heynes reaction to years of pent up anger from bullying. The following article and video Casey being interviewed on Australian current affairs program is well worth a watch for any parent, teacher or concerned community member. Please leave any thoughts or comments below.

Source: autismkey.com

Last week, we wrote about a popular video clip involving Casey Heynes, an Australian student who retaliated after being bullied by 12-year-old Ritchard Gale. The video struck a chord with many across the globe and went viral, being viewed by millions in the process. We covered the story on our site because of the inordinate number of children with autism who are bullied on a daily basis and felt the need to shed additional light on this growing epidemic that currently exists in schools.
On Sunday, A Current Affair (ACA) Australia, aired a fascinating in-depth interview with Casey Heynes (posted below) that gave the back-story that led up to the on-camera bullying episode and subsequent retaliation. In the ACA segment, Heynes describes a chronic pattern of abuse that occurred “practically every day.”  Some of his torment included being called “fatty,” taking slaps across the back of the head, being tripped and bombarded with water bombs at school.
The bullying began all the way back in the second grade and continued until the day Heynes’ incident was caught on camera. The harassment was so severe, Heynes describes how he considered suicide as recently as last year. “Bullycide” as it is called, has become a major problem among teens who are tormented to the point of taking their own lives.
As a parent of a child with autism, these bullying stories are extremely upsetting and much more needs to be done to address this seemingly out-of-control problem. If there is any silver lining to the Casey Heynes incident, it has brought significant attention to bullying in schools and will give further ammunition to those seeking legislative changes to address the epidemic. In fact, as we reported the other day, California Congresswoman Jackie Speier will soon be introducing legislation that addresses bullying against special needs students. The video below is a great testimony of how a single incident can change the course of how the public perceives a particular issue and the good that can come from it. In fact, the Casey Heynes story may be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back, providing a catalyst for significant change to help finally protect our children from bullies once and for all.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

March 24, 2011 - Posted by | ADHD /ADD, Adolescence, Bullying, Child Behavior | , , , , , , ,

3 Comments »

  1. […] Bullying: Casey Heynes Speaks Out (peterhbrown.wordpress.com) […]

    Pingback by Bullies Beware! « What'sYourName | March 28, 2011 | Reply

  2. I hope this gets to someone who can act on this. I’ve watch this sad situation escilate into something ugly. All the BULLIES are coming out of the woodwork all over the world and are now attacking the foolish boy wh was a bully while patting Casey on his back. Casey can stop this! But also adults with authority in the News Media should step in. Have any of them visited Casey Heynes’ facebook page lately, or any of the othe sites? It’s ugly! Why doesn’t someone step in with an interview with these two oys and their parents and make this right. THE WHOLE WORLD IS GOING INSANE. MUSLIMS ARE FIGHTING ONE ANOTHER, JAPAN, NEW ZEALAND,BURMA EARTHQUAKES AND SUFFERING, DO WE REALLY NEED ALL THIS HATE IN OUR WORLD RIGHT NOW? tHESE ARE TWO YOUNG BOYS SOMEONE STEP IN AND SAVE THEM. THE POOR LITTLE FOOLISH YOUNG BOY WHO IS BEING VICTEMIZED NOW, PLEASE STEP IN AND HELP HIM. HELP BOTH OF THEM.

    Comment by margaret | March 29, 2011 | Reply

  3. Great post. This is a topic that must be brought to the forefront of everyone’s minds. We have got to start raising children who can deal with stress in ways other than bullying. Your blog is a great resource.

    Best,
    DeAnne Rosenberg
    http://fromragetoresolution.wordpress.com/

    Comment by deannerosenberg | May 20, 2011 | Reply


Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

« Previous | Next »

%d bloggers like this: